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! 

Topdressing ...

“The putting greens were perfect, why did the superintendent need to apply sand to them?”

We are taking advantage of todays rainy afternoon to put another application of sand topdressing on the putting greens and immediate surrounds. This afternoon starts a wet and damp period that looks to last until Friday mid day. The rain will rinse the topdressing into the turf with minimal disruption and traffic on the surfaces.

If you are playing out here this afternoon and saw us start this process, you may have asked yourself the bolded question above. Topdressing greens has a number of benefits. It creates a smoother, firmer, and faster putting surface while also protecting the plant. 

You can read more about sand topdressing and the benefits at the links below. 

USGA: The Benefits Of Sand Topdressing

USGA: Topdressing And Quality Greens Go Together Like Peas And Carrots

USGA: Light And Frequent Topdressing Programs

Venting greens ...

We vented, or aerified with small solid tines, the West course greens the last two days. We finish this process off with a roll of the greens and the surface disruption is minimal. These tiny holes allow the greens to "breath". Gasses get expelled through the open holes which allows fresh air in. The holes also allow the greens to dry out better but will also allow water into the soil profile easier once the need for irrigation returns. 

Here is a USGA video on the process ... 

USGA Green Section Webcast: Venting Aeration - A Benefit To Putting Greens

Member Guest next week. We've already started prepping. Now would be a perfect time for it not to rain again until next weekend. 

Range Tees ...

Despite the extremely dry and mostly hot weather, we got good germination from the seed we sowed into the range tees. Most of it seemed to survive the period of little to no irrigation also.

Two photos from areas that were still bare enough to see the lines of germinated seed ... 

Maybe not that dry ...

What a couple weeks!

Two weekends ago I started to realize, despite keeping the courses dry and irrigating only as needed, that we were on a fast track to running out of water if we continued to have warm, dry, windy conditions and didn't receive any precipitation. By Monday the 15th, it became clear we were running low and I texted my brother ( who is also a Superintendent ) asking if he had any rain I could borrow.

Well. He didn't. We didn't receive any precipitation either. We were able to irrigate lightly Monday night without any issues but things were dire at that point. I contacted my Regional Agronomist and we decided not to run any irrigation Tuesday. We wanted to be sure we wouldn't run ourselves totally out. We wanted to save some at the bottom of the barrel to use on greens if things didn't improve.

Wednesday the 17th we had a diver come out and clean around the pump intakes in the lake. He also measured how much water we had from the top of the intakes to lake level. Based on what we saw we decided to try to run some water on fairways and tees Wednesday into Thursday. However, it didn't happen. We tried to draw too much water too quickly and the pumps shut down. We still had some water but not enough to match the demand of the pumps.

From that point on we only were running greens and green surrounds. So the fairways, tees, and approaches had not received any irrigation from Monday the 15th to Monday the 22nd.

I wanted things dry, but maybe not that dry.

Our issues are many. Lots of acres. Open course that the wind really blows over. A pond that is on the small side for the acreage. But the major issue stems back to the removal of the low head dams on the Millstone River. The removal of those dams has rendered our river transfer pump useless 80% or more of the time. The river runs so low now that we need a significant rainfall to pump without fear of running our transfer pump dry. We can't pump enough into the pond to keep up with what we are using. And we go long periods without being able to pump anything.

We are milking things along the best we can. I think we have the moisture replenished in the tees ( maybe too wet on some ) and green surrounds, but on the fairways and approaches we just haven't been able to keep up.

The good news is they are forecasting rain for this evening and especially tomorrow. What could go wrong?

Member Tee ...

We seeded the member range tee last week. Should see some germination shortly, if there isn't some already. Eric and I got together and made the decision to allow the Pro Shop team to move the teeing area this year. Hoping to make better use of the available teeing space.

Have a good weekend!

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 ...

Wet paint!

Wet paint. Wet turf. Wet ground. Wet everything most of the last 10 or 14 days. While still warm, we haven't had great working conditions for the golf course in a while.

We have been productive though! We got a lot done in the maintenance building. Moved the job board, moved and rewired some wire connections. Did some drywall repairs and repainted the entire shop. We also helped removing the rug in the restaurant and have done some painting in the clubhouse. So while we haven't made much ground outside, we have knocked some work out none the less.

Today is another warm one. We are raking green side bunkers this morning and are hoping to get to cups later on. We tried to do this yesterday but things were still too frozen from the cold snap we had.

Spring isn't too far off!