Fairway Aerification

It is now one of my favorite maintenance times of the year. We are mid way through our fairway aerification process. The pictures I have taken are from holes #1, #3, and #18. Aerifying fairways is a very similar process to aerifying our tees. The height of cut is very similar so the requirements are also similar. In this process, we first have three of our employees take the Toro Pro Core aerifiers and begin punching holes in the ground avoiding irrigation heads that have been flagged off. Our aerifiers are set at .750. This has been great at slowly helping us with our thatch issues among other things. Once the entire fairway has been aerified, another employee will take the metal drag mat and run it over the plugs numerous times to break apart the thatch and sand. Most of the sand will work its way into the existing holes leaving the thatch and core remains to be picked up by the John Deere sweeper. The sweeper does a great job in picking up a majority of the plugs. For the plugs that do not get collected in the sweeper, we have a fifth employee on the large turbine blower moving the remaining plugs into the center of the fairway for pickup. This clean process leaves the holes open for sand, amendments, and overseeding. When the aerification holes are open, we take a Toro Workman and pull our large Lely hopper behind it spreading Perennial Ryegrass seed and Gypsum onto the fairway at a rate of 150 lbs/acre for the seed and 13 lbs/M for the Gypsum. This helps establish the health and Ph of the fairways with new germination and plant growth to close the existing holes as soon as possible. Once the seed and Gypsum are applied, another employee takes the large New Holland Tractor with the Dakota Turf Tender and spreads fairway sand. This fills the holes and covers the seed and Gypsum. A drag mat is then pulled over the sand to work it into the holes and water is applied shortly after. Since I have been at The Preserve I have noticed a difference in the quality of the fairways due to aerification and have become a huge fan of the process.

Stocker Cup

This annual golf tournament is held at The Preserve and hosts some of the greatest amateur golfers from around the country. This is the biggest and most important event that is held at The Preserve. Every year, numerous employees are asked to work this event to spot golf balls for the players. I was summoned to hole #9. This hole is moderately difficult for spotting tee shots. There are hazard areas on the left and right side of the fairway, leaving it a challenge to find balls that make it into the long native grasses. After the tournament was complete, there were only a few golf balls that were left un-found. The event as a whole was a lot of fun and will look forward to the 2011 Stocker Cup.

#18 Bunker Liner Project

The Fairway bunker on #18 is one of the biggest bunkers on the golf course. It is also unique because it receives the largest amounts of concentrated water flow on the golf course. The entire hill side above #18 fairway funnels down and releases most of its water into this bunker. Some of the worst washouts on the golf course happen in this bunker. We have contemplated re-grading parts of the fairway so that this issue is avoided, but for now we are taking a cautious approach to perfecting #18's renovation. A large issue that exists in this bunker is the ground squirrel damage on its bunker lips. Unfortunately I was involved with separate projects around the rest of the golf course so I did not see the methods used in repairing the bunker lips. As you can see from the pictures, the edges were almost completely re-constructed and sodded. Many of the holes around the edge also had to be repaired. With the potential amount of water damage in mind, these edges were diligently repaired and prepared for the upcoming rain seasons.

Frys.com Tournament Volunteer

For the past two days, Cory, Aaron and myself have been volunteering at Corde Valle for the Frys.com golf tournament in San Martin, CA. Unfortunately I did not have my camera for this event. Each morning we would prepare the golf course starting at 5:00. Aaron was in charge of cutting cups, Cory was scheduled to remove the dew on the tee pads and walkways, and I led a small crew to rake bunkers. It was a lot of fun meeting other Superintendents from the area and gaining more tournament experience. The four day PGA event was nationally televised and won wire-to-wire by Rocco Mediate. I greatly enjoyed this event and hope to volunteer again next year.

#10 Bridge Handrail Renovation

These bridge handrails are identical in shape and size to the teebox handrails shown in previous posts. The only difference is that they are secured by two pieces of allthread instead of being dug into the ground. We no longer needed the post hole digger, so instead we picked up a wood drill and cordless compact wrench to secure each piece of cedar to the frame of the bridge. Just as the other railings, we finished off each piece of wood by spraying ferrous sulfate to give the railings an ideal "rustic" look.