Greens Aerification

We successfully aerified the greens today and had some great weather to get everything done.  We used a small 3/8" diameter aerification tine to pull a core so the healing time and disruption to play should be minimal.  The following is the series of steps we employed to ensure a successful process.

Step 1.  The greens were aerified with our Toro Aerifier.  This process provides four main benefits:  compaction relief; thatch and organic matter reduction and removal; gas exchange; and root zone modification.

Step 2.  Using our pull behind blower, the debris brought to the surface was blown off.

Step 3.  Using the tri-plex mower with the brush attachment in the downward position, the greens were then mowed.  The brush helps to "lift up" the grass blades for a smoother cut.  This also helps to remove any remaining debris.

Step 4.  We applied sand in a criss-cross pattern.

Step 5.  Using a drag brush weighted with a pallet, the sand was worked around the surface to fill all of the aerification holes.

Step 6.  After the sand was worked in, we applied a granular fertilizer and watered everything in.  This is the finished product.



We will water the greens pretty heavily tonight.  Tomorrow I will determine if we need to add more sand.  We will only be rolling the greens Tuesday with our tri-plex roller and, if all looks good, will be back to walk mowing on Wednesday.  Given we only pulled a 3/8" core, I would anticipate the greens will be back in great shape in a short period of time.

City of NRH to Begin Creek Work

On Monday, April 11th, the City of North Richland Hills will begin work on lowering the water line in the creek in front of #10 tee.  This is the large blue pipe that is currently exposed.  A path will be made to allow access just to the right of the ladies tee.  The blue pipe will be cut and a new section put in place to lower the elevation of the pipe.  Once this is completed, the rip-rap rock will be extended from its current position to beyond the blue pipe, so no further erosion can occur in that area.  I have asked the contractors to remove as much of the unused abandoned pipe as possible.  I'm not sure of the extent by which they plan to modify the creek floor, if at all.  But I applaud the efforts of the city of doing away with what has been an eyesore for some time. 

The contractors have 45 days to complete this project.  Depending on the weather, they expected to take not much more than two weeks.  During the phase of repair, I will need to place the tee markers on the other side of the creek.  I will get with Nathan and we will decide if it will be better to play #10 as a par 3 or place the tee markers at the beginning of the fairway so it can still be played as a par 4. 

This is a "before" picture of the project.  I will keep you updated with their process.

Maintenance Update April 7th

What a whirlwind the last couple of weeks have been.  We have been very busy on the golf course.  The weather has been outstanding, although the wind has been pretty tough to deal with.  Here are some things we have going on:

• The drilling company has finished the majority of their work behind #13 green.  They are now in the stages of repairing damage.  Most of the cart path has been replaced by #13 green and #14 tee.  The rest of that area should be poured today.  They will then concentrate on repairing the cart path by #12 tee.  They said they expect that area to go a little slower, since they cannot get a dump truck very close.  The spoils will have to be carted down the makeshift trail to the south of #12 tee.  They still expect to excavate the damaged path in one day and pour the next.  They will also do the installation of irrigation that was removed within the sound barrier.  Once that is completed, the entire area will be sodded with bermuda.  Since the company is doing all of the work themselves, we will unfortunately not be able to construct a nursery green in that area.
• We have been paying a lot of special attention to the greens and the areas that have had a tough time coming back from this past winter.  We are out frequently spot topdressing and hand watering the thin areas.  While many greens look great and have come out of dormancy just fine, we are not seeing very speedy recover on #8, #9 and #16.  I have contacted Champion Turf Farms out of Bay City, TX and they will be sending us a small amount of sod to patch a few areas on these greens and wherever else we may be able to utilize the sod.  They typically cut their sod on Mondays then ship it via FedEx.  I expect to receive it by the middle of next week.  Once we get it, we will have to lay it all out and get it watered.  We will then proceed to the patchwork. 
• We are scheduled to aerify greens on April 18th.  We will be pulling a 3/8" core out and filling with sand.  So long as the weather cooperates, I expect a successful process. 
• I have re-marked all of the fairways and approaches this week.  Instead of having just a straight edged fairway, I have added some contouring.  While some areas got a little wider, you will probably notice more narrowing.  I have already heard some concerns with this making the course more difficult.  I don't expect that to be the case, as what narrowing there is is quite minimal.  We also expect to keep the rough a little more playable this year than last year.  Because of frequent rain events last year, we had to bump the height up to over two inches just to keep it maintained.  We will do our best to keep it under two inches this year.  We are currently mowing at 1.25" and will stay there until all of the roughs are actively growing.  Once they are a little more thicker, we will resume mowing the intermediate rough around the fairways and greens at .75". 
• We received right at one inch of rain Sunday night.  Although it came pretty fast and a majority of it just ran off, it was still beneficial.  This has also been the only measurable precipitation since the last snow received in February.  While I won't ever complain about getting any rain, we could sure use a slow soaker!
• We have several new amenities in play on the course.  Our new 50th Anniversary logo has been transferred on to new flags.  I have purchased new flag sticks, new laser prisms and new pin indicator flags as well.  In the past we have had quite a bit of problem with theft, leaving us with a hodge podge of pins and flags.  Thanks to Nathan and the cart staff, the flags are now picked up every evening.  Also, to prevent the laser prism from coming unscrewed from the top of the pins, I applied threadlock to make sure this would not happen.  In case we have an event that requires different flags, we have a backup set of pins with just a regular nut on top.  We also have new tee markers.  I have a friend that does metal work with a plasma cutter.  I was able to send him a pdf of the leaf logo and we designed the new tee markers.  Once they were cut out, they were powder coated.  We replaced the blue, white, green and red markers.  The tips will still be the original stone markers.

As always, I appreciate any and all comments.  Feel free to contact me anytime or just stop me on the course.  Have a great weekend!

Chuck McCaskill