On Monday of this week we verticut and lightly sanded the greens. This agronomic process is necessary to help smooth out the greens and also help keep our thatch level in check. Initially the greens can actually speed up right after the topdressing, but once the mower has been used a couple of times they tend to slow down due to the dulling of the bedknife on the mower. The very fine sand dulls the mower very quickly. Once we feel the sand has worked down a bit into the green, we place our walking mowers out to get the speed back up again. This can take several days as the sand is still present and keeping the mowers from cutting as good as they can. We will sharpen them after a few days once we know the sand is not being picked up by the mower. The speeds should increase as we will roll them as well. Thanks for your patience during this time, we try and keep the greens as consistent as we can and this process helps in this area.
We are in the planning process of becoming a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. As one part of the process we are forming an Resource Advisory Group. The purpose of the group is to assist us in the planning and implementation of various projects and offer technical advice. Group members also help to disseminate information and help to publicize our efforts. Group members can also volunteer time or labor to help monitor enhancement efforts and help with developing an inventory of plants and animals on the property.
If you are interested in getting involved as a Advisory Group member or just want to volunteer for some of the projects, please send me an email at john.hicks@ourclub.com. You can also call me on my cell phone at 805-433-4643
Additionally, if you know of anybody locally outside of our membership who has some expertise in this area and would like to be involved please let me know, we could use the help.
Thank you
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Recent agronomic actvity
If you've been to the golf course in the last couple of days you will have noticed we aerated the greens with our needle tines and aerated with bigger tines on the collars. The needle tine aerification helps to let air and water penetrate the surface making for better growing conditions. The aerification on the collars is an attempt to alleviate some dry compacted areas and to provide air and water movement into the soil. We will be conducting some additional aerification throughout the golf course where we are starting to see some dry areas forming.
Our irrigation system has flaws and we are actively making improvements and adjustment as we go through the summer months. You may experience some very wet areas out there, primarily around some tee complexes and in the roughs. We are trying very hard to clear these up the best we can. Because the system we have is not a single head control system, it requires a lot of turning on and off sprinklers manually in some areas. Sometimes we don't get it right and we have to make adjustments. There has been some concerns that the course is too wet and I agree, in some areas. Our philosophy is to try and keep the turfgrass in the best possible condition both in color and in turfgrass health. Drying the course out will only invite disease, kill grass, make the course look ugly, and make for recovery in the fall much harder. It will also make it much more difficult for any kind of good playing conditions to exist in the winter months. Also note, that we try and keep the course just a little bit on the wet side going into a predicted heat spell as well. All in all it's a difficult balancing act between too wet and too dry, we strive for something in the middle as best we can.
Please feel free to contact me if there are areas that you have concerns with and we'll do the best we can to solve the problem.
Our irrigation system has flaws and we are actively making improvements and adjustment as we go through the summer months. You may experience some very wet areas out there, primarily around some tee complexes and in the roughs. We are trying very hard to clear these up the best we can. Because the system we have is not a single head control system, it requires a lot of turning on and off sprinklers manually in some areas. Sometimes we don't get it right and we have to make adjustments. There has been some concerns that the course is too wet and I agree, in some areas. Our philosophy is to try and keep the turfgrass in the best possible condition both in color and in turfgrass health. Drying the course out will only invite disease, kill grass, make the course look ugly, and make for recovery in the fall much harder. It will also make it much more difficult for any kind of good playing conditions to exist in the winter months. Also note, that we try and keep the course just a little bit on the wet side going into a predicted heat spell as well. All in all it's a difficult balancing act between too wet and too dry, we strive for something in the middle as best we can.
Please feel free to contact me if there are areas that you have concerns with and we'll do the best we can to solve the problem.
Lady Niners MGI and Ladies MGI
It was a pleasure getting the course ready again for both the Lady Niners and the Ladies MGI tournaments. While not as intense from the stand point of late nights for the Ladies MGI, it was still a challenge to keep things at a high level for the three days. The crew again was outstanding in preparing the course during this time. Thanks to the tournament committee and the pro-shop as well for helping us coordinate the set up for the different events. We look forward to next years event. A special thank you goes out to Nancy Keiter who always manages to get a batch of meatballs and goodies to the crew during the MGI events, Thank you Nancy! I even got some this time!
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