Pardon Our Dust

Over the past week the Grounds Maintenance Team has been busy at work performing cultural practices necessary to provide a healthy and playable golf course. We started with verticutting fairways, tees and green slopes followed by a "circle mow." This week we began core aerifying fairway and slopes. In coming weeks we will also core aerify tees and follow with a sand topdressing in select areas. To help you with this terminology, I've provided some definitions below.

• Verticutting is a process where a machine with vertical cutting blades removes thatch by slicing through the canopy and pulling thatch to the surface. Thatch is the accumulation of dead grass, debris and roots. Too much thatch leads to "spongy" playing conditions as well as increased disease and insect pressure. Over time, too much thatch will result in dead grass. Other benefits of verticutting is the reduction of grain and a healthier, better playing turf canopy.  
• Circle mowing is a process where a regular golf course mower simply cuts grass while constantly turning in a circle. This action allows the mower to "attack" the grass from several angles differing from the normal straight mowing procedure. Circle mowing helps to remove thatch while also having a significant effect on reducing grain. Especially in the south, grass tends to grow sideways instead of vertically. This produces grain. When the grain becomes too significant it has a negative effect on both appearance and playability. It's ironic that by scalping the grass with dedicated processes like verticutting and circle mowing that we actually reduce scalping and poor appearances throughout the remainder of the year. 
• Aerifying is the process of poking holes into the turf for the purpose of facilitating air, water and nutrient movement to benefit the grass. Core aerifying not only involves poking a hole but also removing a plug of soil and thatch. Core aerifying provides all the previous mentioned benefits of poking a hole with the added benefit of relieving compaction. This compaction relief is exceptionally critical this year as we have double the cart traffic due to single-rider golf carts.
• Topdressing is the application of a layer of sand to a turf canopy. The purpose of topdressing is to help smooth the surface, dilute organic matter and improve playing conditions.

While these practices will take place across the golf course throughout much of the month of August, the greens program will be relatively unchanged from what you have experienced all summer long. We've received a lot of nice complements about the putting surfaces and we expect that they will remain exceptional.

In previous years we would close for a total of about 30 days throughout the summer to allow time to perform all of this work. With all that is going on in 2020 we chose to provide you with a safe, enjoyable outlet to play golf, therefore we have only closed for a total of 2 days to date. We can get the work completed as long as you are patient and understanding.

We do understand that the ongoing work does interfere with golf at times. We will do our best to keep the work confined to a limited number of holes at one time in order to minimize the impact on any given round. You are encouraged to play the ball up if your lie is affected by this work. 

I assure you that our golf course will be better than ever in no time following this crucial work over the next couple of weeks. Thank you for your support.

#11 Fairway after being verticut and circle mowed

18 Fairway after aerification

Henry is out circle mowing #18 to clean up following aerification. If you see Henry, ask him if he's dizzy!