Creating Firmer Faster Surfaces For Upcoming Championship Play

Program continued of sand topdressing of fairways this week

Playing surfaces are being topdressed this week as part of our ongoing maintenance program in concert with perfect timing in preparation for the Club Championships next weekend.  The cooler temperatures this week are perfect for this work to get done with minimal stress to the turf.  The greens are being topdressed this morning, and the fairways were started on Tuesday and continued through the week with completion scheduled today.  Tees will be scheduled to be topdressed next Tuesday.

Golf developed on the sandy links of Scotland and therefore sand has been the tonic for wet conditions for centuries. Old Tom Morris the Professional/Greenkeeper at St. Andrews began to topdress greens with sand in 1875 to make them firm and smooth.  After finding that sand made for good golf, the concept of sand use naturally spread to North America for use on greens, collars, and approaches at courses that were not blessed with properties with natural sand for excellent drainage and playing surfaces.

Old Tom Morris - Pro and Greenkeeper at St. Andrews 1865-1903

Sand applied to golf playing surfaces helps dilute the undecomposed organic matter (thatch).  With less thatch present, water is able to penetrate down into the ground to promote deeper rooting.  With minimal thatch, new grass seedlings are able to root deeper into the soil, and not into the thatch layer, allowing the turf to be more drought tolerant, and withstand less water through irrigation to maintain healthy turf.  With water needed to be applied, the playing surface will be maintained firmer with more potential for bounce and roll.

Other than the holes 18, 17, 16, 13 and 10 along the lake, the soils at Muskoka Lakes are predominantly clay-based, which are subject to holding moisture.  With the program in place of periodic fairway topdressing throughout the season, we are slowly creating a sand cap over the clay soils.  The sand not only makes for firmer surfaces for golf purposes, but also to provide better drainage for firmer conditions and less golf cart restrictions during wet periods.

It should be noted we no longer core aerate our clay fairways.  We only solid tine them just after Thanksgiving to avoid bring up the clay material from underneath.  Our goal is to sand cap them through topdressing, and verticut them two times per season to physically remove the thatch.

Thatch control, firmer playing surfaces, and smoothing of the playing surface, allows the fairway mowers to mow lower without scalping undulations.

Another added side benefit that has been observed with fairway topdressing is the reduction of worm castings on the turf. Sand is abrasive and susceptible to drought influence – two factors antagonistic to worms. Populations are reduced enough to eliminate worm castings being a problem.

As mentioned above, the biweekly topdressing of greens is being performed this morning.  The treatment will be proceeded by a light verticutting, to thin out some puffiness of the turf created during the heat stress period last week when the greens were babied along by using the less aggressive solid rollers.  The verticutting/topdressing will make for some firm, fast and true surfaces for competitors for the upcoming championships next weekend.

Good luck to competitors!