Aerification update!

 I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!

The week before Thanksgiving we aerified fairways and DryJected greens on both courses. 

The DryJecting process went very well. The process involves dried topdressing sand being injected into the greens via a channel created by pressurized water. The hole created is minimal but the amount of sand injected is impressive. As evidenced by the picture below. 

    "DryJect uses a high-speed, water-based injection system to blast aeration holes through the root zone to fracture the soil. The patented vacuum technology simultaneously fills holes to the surface with high volumes of sand or amendment. This means you can relieve compaction, increase water infiltration, reach the root zone with oxygen and amend your soil with high volumes of material all at the same time. Plus DryJect leaves the surface smooth and playable."

Sand channel on the West course PG ... 

The fairway aerification was a bit of a struggle. In the four days leading up to Monday, we received 2.5 inches of rain. To make matters worse, the weather ( drizzle, cloudy, cold ) on Tuesday was very difficult for aerfication purposes and that put us behind for the week. To make matters worse again, we had long frost delays on Wednesday and Thursday and when all was said and done, we only got through 12 holes on the West course. The same company is scheduled to come back and finish the last 7 holes in the coming weeks. The weather will be the deciding factor as to whether that happens. Lets hope it does!

We are still mowing grass out there! As I'm typing this we are mowing the West greens. Despite some cold nights, we've had enough daytime warmth to keep things growing a bit and we will mow as long as that stays the case. 

Hopefully the next blog post is highlighting some successfully repaired irrigation leaks! 

Normal ... kind of.

Well, we are somewhat back to "normal". It has been refreshing. I told my wife at dinner Tuesday night that I finally felt like we made some progress here in the last week or so.

As I'm sure those who have played here the last few days have noticed, we put the flag sticks back out. The cups are still upside down. Please do your best not to touch the stick.

Stick in left side of picture .... 

In an effort to keep up with the mowing while also being able to get to other projects, we've relied on a pretty heavy regimen of growth regulators. Growth regulators, while slowing growth, can have a yellowing or bronzing effect on turf-grass, especially at higher rates. So if you have noticed a yellow, orange, or bronze tinge to the fairways and tees, that is why. It will grow out this week most likely. The tees are handling it worse than the fairways, which probably has something to do with the composition of the soil. 

Picture of #10 East tee "yellowed" ... 

One of the projects we were using the growth regulators to free up time for was "bunker cleaning". Hopefully you have noticed the "noses" of the bunkers are now down to a more rough like height. And the closely mowed edges are clean. 

#14 West bunker the "new way" ... 

#5 West bunker the "old way" ... 

Finally, it seems as if the change to an overall drier golf course has been noticed already. Wednesday afternoon through to Thursday afternoon I felt as if we were at the ideal moisture level. Especially for a links style course. I felt like it looked right and I'd bet it was playing right also. Eric and I took a ride Thursday mid day and I liked what I saw and felt so much that I almost got my clubs out for the first time this year! 

Lighter green and perhaps even a tinge of brown as opposed to a lush, wet looking dark green. #4 West ... 

#17 West ... 

Until next time ... 

How about that for a sunrise?!

We were treated to couple awesome sunrises the last few days. Makes for a good start to the morning!

We cut greens twice this week which means we have cut all the playing surfaces at least once. We also did some more bunker clean up, getting to some of the bigger fairway bunkers that were holding leaves. 

Maybe the biggest development was the removal of the snow sticks! Hopefully it doesn't jinx us ... 

Another nice weekend on tap highlighted by the Irish Open tomorrow. Sounds like we have a good crowd for it. If interested, here is the link to sign up: Royce Brook GC - Irish Open ...

Enjoy the weekend everyone! 

Mowing! And pond clean up ...

Warm weather upon more warm weather. That has been the theme of this winter for sure.

Things are rolling right along. Everything except the greens have been mowed. We plan to mow them tomorrow ( Monday ) morning.

We are still strategically removing trees. Concentrating on those that are shading putting greens or that are dead and or dangerous.

We have continued to work on overall course clean up and details. Last week, we tackled the ponds near #12 East and #6 West. This was a lot of work as they had gotten overgrown and we were removing what we cut down from the area. I think the work will be noticeable.

It seems like a few of you are out enjoying this beautiful Sunday. Hopefully you enjoy your day!

Pics of the pond clean up below ...

Another one ...

Looks like a great stretch of weather coming! In preparation for that, we blew out all the green side bunkers on the West course yesterday. We also mulched the areas around the bunkers that had the most leaves. Today we are going to reset cups, check tee markers, and hopefully rake green side bunkers on the West if they aren't frozen.

We took a big tree down from between eight and nine East this week. Had obviously been dead for sometime and was in pretty bad shape. We completed the clean up other than the stump grinding.

Hopefully you can get out and enjoy the course over the next week!

Pond clean up!

We've had a pretty standard 10 days or so in the agro department. We are on our third mow of the high grass areas, which I'm really happy with. I was afraid we would have snow cover or terrible weather for weeks or a month and not much make progress. However we have had a good winter of working weather and we have accomplished a lot.

The last few days we knocked out the pond edge next to the tee on #1 West and behind the wedding area. This area is very visible and had gotten out of control. No longer! Still some work to do around the edge, as some of those small bushes and trees are frozen into the ice. But overall, a much cleaner, neater look.

One to two inches of rain today! Not great for the turf. When we thaw out after a few very cold days like we had early this week, things are sloppy. When we thaw out and get an inch or two of rain, things are very sloppy and easily damaged. 

Have a good weekend!

Pictures of the pond, before top, after bottom. Notice in the first picture, you can't even see most of the split rail fence "before".