Aerification

Anther aerification is in the books and the golf course is on the road to recovery.  We were fortunate with the weather coopering until the very last minute on Wednesday.  The rain started to fall at 5:00pm right as we were completing work on #18 fairway.

Similar to last fall you will find the golf course very playable after aerification, the greens are perhaps the most playable of all the surfaces. The tees and fairways will take a little longer to return to normal conditions but it will be worth the wait. 

The fairways were heavily topdressed with sand to help with drainage and surface firmness to increase ball roll off the tee shots. This will have been the second complete topdressing of the fairways with sand and this process will require several more years to fully realize the improvements.  More than 500 tons of sand was applied to the fairways after aerifiction, the majority of the sand worked its way into the aerification holes while a significant amount still sits on the surface. The sand will take a couple of weeks to fully work its way into the turf canopy as new growth takes place in the fairways. Currently the fairways look more like bunkers, but the amount of sand needed to modify the surface requires that we apply these heavy rates to achieve our long term goals.

Applying The Sand

Fairway Covered In Sand

After Sand Has Been Drug In

Polka Dots

I am not sure which is more difficult, the winter weather or the wildlife damage to the course each year. It seems as if every year we cannot escape winter without some sort of damage.  This year with the winter weather being more mild than usual the course is beginning to come out of dormancy  in good condition.  The exception being the areas that were damaged by the Elk and Deer.

With a lack of snow cover for most of the winter the turf was exposed to the resident wildlife and they had a ball out on the course.  Our biggest issues out on the course are the numerous areas of urine burn from the Deer and Elk. The areas in the fairways have already been seeded with Bentgrass and the areas on greens will have to be plugged out. The plugging on greens will not take place until after aerification due to the fact that the repaired areas might pull up from being aerified.  This process will take several days to complete and then a couple of weeks for the repaired areas to blend in on the greens.

The hoove marks on the greens appear worse than they are, the damage that was caused is on the surface above the crown of the plant. The plant will regenerate new tissue and repair itself from this damage as soon as active turf growth begins to take place. During aerification additional seed will be applied to these areas to help with recovery.

Urine Burn on #10 Fairway

Urine Burn and Hoove marks on #7 Green