With all of this in mind, I wanted to quantify how our agronomic programs have done so far this year. Fortunately, the two USGA regional agronomists were in the area to do some site visit to other clubs and agreed to swing by CCN for a quick "look under the hood." While the USGA was here we discussed all facets of our summer agronomic programs; aerifications, sandings, verti-cutting and the frequency of each.
The USGA was pleased with our green's management since the renovation and the surface the programs are producing. The aerification programs are yielding a good soil profile that should provide acceptable receptivity to the greens while allowing for all the physical properties that are required . It was the USGA'S recommendation that we do not change our aerification programs for the greens.
Next we talked about the fairway programs, specifically thatch management and sandings. Like the greens, we want a little bit of soil organics, but not too much. We maintain the ratio of soil to organics on the greens primarily by core aerifications, meaning we pull cores out of the ground and then clean them off. Traditionally the process would be the same on the fairways except we wouldn't clean off the cores. Instead of removing the cores we would let them dry, drag a steel mat across the material to separate the soil from the thatch and then blow off the thatch. Since opening the course after the renovation I have not core aerified the fairways due to all of the rock that is in the ground. Instead of pulling cores as we do on the greens, I have used a different tine that just pokes a hole in the ground. The reasons for only poking holes and not pulling cores is to 1) find all of the rocks so we could remove them without pulling up rock onto the grass 2) allow the grass to develop a little mat layer.
Here is a picture of a new solid tine of 3/4" solid steel side by side with a well used tine. Notice how much steel is worn off from hitting all the rocks.
Here's a picture of a little gem hidden just under the grass layer
And here is what these little gems do to the machines. We break lots of parts on the fairway aerifier, that's why I got an extended warranty on it!
After inspecting the soil profiles on several holes and talking about our fairway management programs that include aggressive vertical mowing and grooming, the USGA was satisfied that we are on track to have a high quality playing surface in the fairways doing what we are doing. Additionally, because we have been so aggressive with removing surface rocks from the course, next year we will switch to a traditional core aerification in the fairways to be even more aggressive with organic matter control.
Similar to when you say peanut butter you almost immediately think of jelly, when you say aerification you almost think of sand! In today's golf maintenance world that even includes the fairways. My concern with our fairway sanding program was that we were either not doing enough and should abandon it or it was a program that really was just a feel good measure and was ineffectual. I was wrong on both accounts! The two USGA agronomists agreed that when it comes to sanding fairways the more the better, especially on the back where all the rock is. I was told that it is not uncommon that after 5-7 years of heavy sanding in the summer it is possible to build up a good four to five inch layer of a high quality sand based profile. This is our goal, especially on the back 9 holes. We want to build a sand cap over all of the rocky soil. That's going to take time, but we have initiated the process and do repeated sands to the fairways. All of the sand will help maintain the fairways firm surface as well. This translates into better drainage and better roll off of the tee.
Another part of this week's activities was to go around to all of the bunkers and repair any of the settling of the sod faces that created unfair shots. In other words, we raised any areas around the bunkers faces where little depressions have formed that made an attempted swing at the ball unfair. We repaired the majority of the sod face depressions by cutting the sod and filling underneath to raise where needed. Then after the sod was put back the areas where heavily top dressed by hand to ensure a smooth transition line across of the face. In a few weeks the sod will heal and the sand will disappear and all that will be left is a perfect bunker face.
One of the important concepts that the USGA reminded me of is to not get crazy aggressive with late summer maintenance practices. Due to the high heat index during this part of the year the turf will be slow to recover. With this in mind I wanted to make sure we didn't cut of our nose to spite our face so to speak, so we did what we had to do without jeopardizing our long term health. The course made it through the aerification very well and should heal up very nicely. Our only blemish will be some areas that are not sodded where there were some extremely large subsurface boulders removed. We do not have enough on-site area to cut sod from to replace what was torn up, so I will order it on Monday for Tuesday delivery. All of these areas will be marked with a white circle and players can take relief without penalty under the "Ground Under Repair" ruling. Additionlly, any other areas that are not 100% will be sodded so that we can have full turf coverage going into the fall season.
