Busiest Time of Year

Aerating 9 green

 

It has been a busy last few days here at the club. This is a very important time of year for the golf course as we are prepping the course for the cold winter months. Due to the wet fall months, when we get a chance to do important jobs such as aeration, its important to take advantage. This is the reason why we choose to aerate the 8 sand greens this week. This is the tip of the iceberg as far as important jobs go during the fall. Up coming jobs include the drill and fill, blowing out the irrigation system of water before the freeze, solid tine punching of the fairways, our final spray for snow mold disease and final topdressings of the greens, tees and fairways.

Aeration of our 8 sand greens was done Tuesday with 1/2 inch hollow tines. With this being the second largest core you can pull, multiple top dressings were done to ensure each and every hole was filled with sand. It is very important to get new sand in the green because the build up of organic matter can inhibit water percolation. Sand also helps with decreasing the amount of thatch in the green which can lead to problems such as higher disease risk and poor water infiltration.

Next week, our other 10 native soil greens will go through the process called a drill and fill. Native soil is probably the worst soil to have a putting green on. During the years this course was built, having native soil greens was very normal due to the fact that no one really knew having a sand green was possible and easier to manage. The drill and fill process allows us to invade the native soil and place sand in it. This is an enormous help with water movement, compaction and overall quality of turf growth. USGA spec. greens have a 12 inch sand base, so the drill bit used for the drill and fill will be 12 inches. It enters the green, extracts the native subsoil and places greens grade sand in to replace it.

We thank you for your patience through both of these very important practices as they continue to improve the health and playing quality of our greens.



Drill and Fill on 15 green last year

With all that being said, this weekend is shaping up to be an excellent Thanksgiving weekend not just for turkey, but golf too! Saturday, hopefully Sunday (slight chance of rain) and Monday will be excellent days to come out and enjoy the course and its beautiful fall colours.

Have an excellent round and enjoy some turkey!