Good morning all,
I apologize for not giving an update in some time, but my blog host has been down and I have not been able to access the site.
We have had a lot going on in the past several weeks. Mother nature has been very kind to us and blessed us with some much needed rain. I believe we recorded just over two inches this week alone. While it was necessary for us to be cart path only for a couple of days, the course handled it well and the grass is really growing.
We have started to get pretty aggressive on the greens. I realize they have been putting slow, but with the weather the way it has been, they are really growing. To combat this, we have verticut twice this week as well as run the brush and groomers on the tri-plex everyday. In addition to the tri-plex, we have been mowing a second time with the walk mowers each day, essentially cutting the greens twice. Hopefully you have noticed they are much smoother and the double cut each day provides a little more speed than just a single cut.
We are scheduled for our second greens aerification on Tuesday, May 31st. Much like we did last month, we will pull a core with a half-inch coring tine, clean the debris, mow, fill the holes with sand and apply a granular fertilizer. I realize the club championships are quickly approaching and we will do everything we can to ensure the greens are ready for those events.
On May 17th, I fertilized the entire course with our annual granular fertilizer application. This was a unique product in that it was coated with a polymer and the fertilizer is slowly released over the year based on temperature. Looking at the annual temperature averages for our area and with the amount of fertilizer we applied, this application will last through the entire growing season. So regardless of the amount of rain we receive or do not receive, the fertilizer will still be hanging around for the next several months.
Also with the recent rains and fertilizer application, the roughs have really started to thicken up. We got around this week with the rough units set at 1.25". Next week we will raise the unit to 1.5" and keep it at that height through the summer. We also started mowing the intermediate cut around the fairways, bunkers and greens at 1". That height will remain the same. Once the roughs fill in at 1.5", we should see some great definition between the fairways, intermediate and roughs. The fairways have been raised to just under half an inch and will remain there as well. Tees and approaches are still at 3/8", but will be raised in the coming weeks to match the fairways. And finally we are mowing the greens at .120, which is where we will keep them. An eighth of an inch is .125 so we are just under that height.
Finally, we will be pulling the rope up from holes #1 and either #7 or #8. One of those holes (7 or 8) will remain cart path only at all times and we will rotate between the two on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I also plan to keep up traffic rope on #1 to keep the usual areas under the treeline from getting too worn out.
I hope everyone has been enjoying the great weather along with the course conditions. Please contact me anytime with any comments or suggestions.
Thanks and have a great Memorial Day weekend!
Chuck
