#15 Tee Thatch Removal

Most tee boxes on the golf course are used daily. There is a back tee box on #15 that we do not use unless it is a tournament day. This tee box also allows us to test small tee projects. One experiment that we are interested in testing is a small thatch removal project. The tee box on #15 is a perfect location for this project because it is not used and it is maintained like every tee box on the golf course.
This project started by stripping off three rough cut passes surrounding the tee surface with a ryan 18" sod cutter. The entire short cut tee top was then stripped off revealing the excessive layers of thatch. The layers of thatch on each tee box is the motivation to experiment with this project. This 1" to 1.5" of exposed thatch was stripped off to the underlying sand profile using flat head and half-moon shovels. Once the thatch was removed, we applied pre-plant amendments and pieced the sod back together. This process can be seen in the pictures below. After about two weeks, the sod should root, and the lines that you can see in the pictures will completely fill in. If the results of the de-thatched tee box show that the grass is healthier because of this experiment, then we may apply this project to every tee box on the golf course. Until then, it is just an experiment.