Greens aerification and more

This was a busy week with greens aerification on Monday and Tuesday.  We decided to solid tine the greens instead of pulling a core because we still have very good control of our organic matter content.  We used two machines to double aerify the greens and get more sand into the thatch layer to dilute the organic matter.  This trend seems to be almost as beneficial as pulling a core and removing the thatch.

Since we were not pulling a core and cleaning it up, we topdressed the greens very heavy first.  Then solid tined with very large 1" tines 8" deep with a 5" spacing, followed by shallow 1/2" tines on 1" centers.  This way we got sand and holes both in the surface layer and deeper for root development.  By topdressing first, the mechanical nature of the machine and the vibration helps work the sand into the holes.

Topdressing

Deep solid tining

Small tines very close together

After aerifying we brushed in the sand, double rolled, irrigated, and brushed again.

Here is 3 days after aerification

We also incorporated many projects on the course and renovation work to the inside of the clubhouse during the course closure.  By extending the course closure another 2 days, and utilizing the membership in work days we really got a lot of work done - thank you to all. 

Changing the pea gravel walkway at 5 island tee to pavestones.

Before

After



We also changed the entryway to #13 tee to be a combination of turf and pavestones with the landscape.

.We also performed many other maintenance tasks on the course, and the members painted all the cart storage buildings - a big task that took many labor hours.  Great job membership.

Irrigation project #14

We installed and performed most of the work on irrigation addition on hole #14 last week, and we will have that project wrapped up this week.  Originally that hole only had single row irrigation down the middle leaving both edges bare dirt in the heat of the summer.

Before picture

We installed a row down each edge of the native grass and connected to the center line, and now the entire whole will be irrigated.

Trenches left and right with connections going across

Overall we added 2500 ft of pipe, 32 heads, and an additional irrigation controller.

A second irrigation controller being installed and wired up

Pipe following the current grass line, you can see the thin rough from last summer

Bunker #4 re-grassing

After many years of bunker shots splashing sand up on the turf face of a bunker they just need to be renovated.  The sand gets into the turf canopy and it cannot be removed by blowing or raking.  Many of our bunkers on the course have a "hump" on the green side right where all the shots are aimed.  Over the years this sand raises the face of the bunker, makes the bunker deeper, and a maintenance headache to maintain turf on the grass face now that it is all sand and not soil.  The slope gets steeper allowing the sand to fall down, the lip gets bigger, and during the hot summer months the soil crumbles and allows contamination to fall into the sand.

Before picture

Sod is stripped off, all the sand removed (here it was 13"), the edge of the bunker is re-established, and new sod placed back down on soil.

Sand built up on top of he old soil

Sand layer above soil

The new lip is established with a sod layer, then masonite is installed as a barrier during construction to keep the sand and soil separate.  Once the turf is rooted down the boards will be removed.

New bunker edge is created

Masonite creating barrier, backfilled with sand/soil, then trimmed to turf height for playability for the next month

Finished product 2 days later

Here was before - hump is gone

Irrigation done, on to #4 bunker

Staff did a great job the last week and half adding irrigation to 3 different areas on the golf course where our coverage was lacking due to spacing of irrigation heads.  These additions will really help during the heat of the summer.

Irrigation addition on #2

 With that project finished we are going to re-construct the front bunker on #4.

Over many years of bunker shots splashing sand up on the face of bunkers, they all need to be re-built.  That sand that is thrown out of the bunker on each shot gets into the turf and raises the elevation of the bunker face.  It happens to every golf course and no matter how hard you try to blow the sand out of the turf you just cant get all of it.  If you look around the course, all of our bunkers have a raised face on the side closest to the green. Right where all the shots area aimed.

 This hump is all the sand built up over the years and increases the depth of the bunker, along with making it harder to maintain turf.

 These faces can build up a tremendous amount of sand, which does not hold enough water or nutrients to maintain quality grass.  With this bunker on #4 there is about 10" of sand built up and you see what type of turf that leaves us.

 The sand will be removed back down to the original soil grade, the face of the bunker will be re-established, and new sod will be laid down.

Cartpath Work

One of our small projects for the winter is to clean-up some of the cartpath ends. Over many years of use and traffic, the end of the path starts to chip away, develop loose asphalt, and show extreme turf wear and compaction.  We do things on a regular basis to relief compaction and improve turf quality, but sometimes the asphalt needs work.  This causes the general traffic to avoid the straight off section of the path and use the two sides for exit.  Below is a picture from last summer, you can see due to the roughness at the end of the path everybody exits left or right.

By improving the asphalt and turf quality at the end of the path, ie a smoother ride and exit, we can get golfers to use more exit points.

As we have discussed in the past, the key with traffic on turf is scattering and moving the traffic around.  This improvement will now allow the golfer to also exit off the end of the cartpath along with the two sides.

13 forward tee open

The new forward tee on #13 that we built this spring is now open for play.  #13 will play as a par 4 and the forward tees on #14 have been moved back to the back tee so it will play as a par 5.

Yardage plate is installed

This is an example of our dormant sodding that I wrote about in a previous post, .  We did the construction with frozen ground, laid the sod in a dormant state, and then during the the last 4 months of actual growing weather we grew in the tee with an intense topdressing, mowing, fertilizing and grooming program.  The tee is now at the same height of cut as the other tees, paying to the same firmness, and you would never know it was built 8 weeks ago.

7 1/2" roots

Dormant Sodding

One thing that we do a lot of here at Lewiston Country Club is dormant sodding throughout the winter. Our mild weather with minimal snow allows us to work out on the golf course about 70% of the time.  All of the turf is dormant, but we can still do projects, prep sod areas, and lay sod.  The sod covers up the soil during winter golf and lays dormant.  Once things began to green up and grow in the spring then the turf roots down.

20 trees were removed this winter, stumps ground, and sodded the stumps in January

Smooth transition come spring of those sodded stumps

It works well for us because our springs tend to have a fair amount of rain.  We do need to keep a close eye on the sod in the spring , as it can dry out very quickly.  If it was a hot dry spring then we could find ourselves handwatering all the sod that we have laid, but most of the time our spring rains allow for a smooth transition.

New forward tee built and sodded in February

Have not mowed, ran irrigation, or anything yet - and roots are 3 inches as of March 21

We are irrigating just that tee right now to keep our shallow roots moist 

This is a concept that works very well for us, because the spring is always so busy getting the golf course ready, starting maintenance, pressurizing irrigation, and all the other work that goes into getting the course ready for play.  That by doing our sod work and larger projects over the winter we can allocate more staff to the project at that time and use labor resources during the spring for course maintenance.

Irrigation trench sodded when the turf was not growing