Memorial Day Weekend

     Memorial day is coming up on Monday and the golf course is really good right now.  The grounds crew has been putting in countless hours wrapping up extensive projects throughout the property.  We have finished seeding all of the new native areas throughout the property and are wrapping up with the extensive drainage in #12 and #14 fairways.

     If you're curious which natives areas I am referring to, it's all the recently tilled areas with the signs that say "keep out of newly seeded areas".  Though these spots are bare now, with the warming trends and rainfall we should start seeing germination in 14-21 days.  The process to prepare the native areas was extensive. We started by spraying non-selective herbicide on three separate occasions to kill off any unwanted weeds or grass in the areas.  After the herbicide applications the areas were then scalped down with a brush hog

 mower.  The areas were then rototilled with a three point tiller hooked up to one of our tractors.  Following the tilling process a harrow rake was pulled through all the areas to break up any large clods and helps smooth out any imperfections.  Finally came the seeding part.  We applied a blend of Soil Guard hard fescue and Big Horn GT hard fescue at a rate of roughly .4lbs/1000 sq. ft.  Mind you this was walk applied to roughly five acres of area.  Once the seed was spread we followed through with the harrow rake again to work the seed into the soil (it is important for good seed to soil contact for germination).  The final process was attaching our three-gang roller to a vehicle and rolling all the native areas to compact the soil.  These ares are going to help reduce labor and equipment usage by eliminating the unnecessary mowing of these out of place areas and will also serve as a safe haven for small animals.

   


     Other updates that will hopefully be noticed by less "no cart" days are the drainage areas we have completed in fairways.  The crew did a stellar job laying close to 1000' of pipe the past couple of weeks in #12 and #14 fairways.  These two fairways tend to stay the wettest the longest and with the drainage that has been laid it should allow for proper drying of the aforementioned areas.  Drainage is important for numerous reasons.  The most obvious reason is to get water off the property in a timely fashion; but without drainage, problems such as compaction, scalding, no carts, and drowning of the plant can wreak havoc.  The famous saying about golf courses is "The three most important things on a golf course are drainage, drainage, drainage.  \
     As for the rest of the golf course, the mowing heights are set for the season.  We will continue with routine cultural practises to help improve every aspect of the golf course.  Don't worry, these practises are minimally invasive and hardly noticeable but extremely important.  Please have a wonderful long Memorial Day weekend as the golf season is now in Full Swing!!