The Aftermath

While I had plans to finish verticutting fairways this week, Mother Nature had other ideas. Tropical Storm Colin brought us two days of wet, windy weather. At the end of it we had accumulated 8.75 inches of rain and 2 downed trees. There is still a fair amount of standing water but the guys worked hard to clean up most of the debris today. On the bright side, the greens loved all the rain and the holes from last week's aerification are starting to close. Delayed by the weather, we were finally able to get out and perform a verticut and mow on the greens this afternoon. They look really healthy and should be back to normal soon.

The crew continues to clean up piles of thatch left behind from the fairway verticutting. We hope to get out and complete the process as the golf course dries out. The summer annuals have also arrived this week so we can look forward to seeing new flowers over the next few days.

   Fallen palm on #16

   #10 Green after mowing

Aerification Complete... Almost

The golf course was closed four days last week so the Grounds Department could perfom the first of two core aerifications this summer. The crew put in long days working sun up to sun down in many cases. The greens were aerified in the same aggressive manner that we have successfully used the past four years, pulling A LOT of large cores. Tees, collars, approaches and walk-up areas were also aerified. The benefits of aerification are a reduction in thatch, relief from soil compaction and an increase in water/air movement in the soil profile. All of these things translate into healthier turf and ultimately better playing conditions.

The fairways underwent an aggressive vertical mowing last week. This process removes thatch while also encouraging an upright growth of the turf and reduction of grain. This is a time consuming process due to our expanded fairway acreage with approximately 15 acres still left to complete. The holes that have been completed still have a lot of the grass clippings still needing to be cleaned from the fairways. Everything has been put on hold due to the inclement weather but should resume in the next day or two. 

On the bright side, the rain should aid the recovery of the greens and fairways that have been completed! 

   Jackie pulling the first row of plugs on the Practice Green

   Large roller smoothing #12 Green

   Brand new healthy white roots are a direct result of the aerification

   1 of 2 piles of thatch removed from #9 Fairway

   Plugs spread on thin spots on #8 Fairway