Verticutting Greens

Just a quick note that we will be verticutting the greens in two directions and applying a light topdressing this Thursday (3/17) morning.  We have started utilizing a different sand this year, which has been thoroughly filtered to remove large particles.  This sand is recommended specifically for Champion Bermuda greens.  Because the larger particles are removed, the sand is able to fall into the canopy and not be such a hindrance to play.  While the vertical mower lines may be visible, ball roll should not be affected.

This morning (Wednesday) we successfully solid tined several areas of the greens that needed compaction relief and just a general "airing out".  We did the following greens: all of #1, the back hump on #5, all of #6, all of #8, the top shelf on #9, the back edges of #'s 11, 12, and 13, the front edge of #15, and all of #16 and 17.  Once we were done with the aerifier, we mowed the greens with the walking mowers.  The holes themselves are barely visible but very beneficial.

Also, as of Wednesday afternoon, we have aerified all of the fairways except for #3 and #5, which we will do Thursday.  We mowed some of the fairways today that we aerified on Monday and they look much cleaner.  I anticipate having all of the fairways mowed and cleaned off before the weekend.

Aerifying Greens, Fairways and Roughs

With the upcoming great looking weather, we will begin the process of aerifying fairways.  After a long winter, the fairways are really compacted and still very thin in the more shady areas.  This will help relieve some of the compaction as well as help promote new growth.  We will be doing the process on 3-4 fairways per day.  This will allow us to run the aerifier over the fairway, give time for the plugs to dry, then take our rotary mower over the plugs to pulverize them.  We should finish this by Thursday of this week and aerifying a few fairways per day should minimize the impact to play. 

We will also be going out to "spot aerify" some of the greens this week.  We will be using a solid "star"  aerification tine and the process will be hardly noticeable.  Several greens have thin areas on mounds and edges from the harsh winter and punching with a solid tine will help speed recovery.  We will not actually pull a plug until April 18th, in which case we will pull a 1/4" plug.

In the coming weeks, we will also be aerifying all of the roughs between the cartpaths and fairways to help relieve compaction.  Once we begin this process, we will remain "Cart Path Only" for a couple of weeks to give the turf a chance to thicken and fill in.

As always please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments!

Thanks,
Chuck