It's just about that time of the year again... If you've noticed, the tee sheet on Sunday, April 29 closes at 2 pm for that twelve-letter curse word: aerification. Right now, the weather looks cooperative for Sunday and Monday, and the course will be closed as scheduled to allow for greens aerification.
Last week, we applied fertilizer to the greens to provide them with ample nutrition to cover the many millions of sand-filled holes that we are going to be creating. Now, we just need Mother Nature to warm things up to get the grass growing. Hopefully, she will cooperate and everything will heal quickly.
Yesterday, we tested out the two core aerifiers and deep driller on the chipping green, and all of the equipment worked like a charm. Thus, the greens are now 1/20 of the way done.
As we've done for a long time, we're having the UW-Madison Turf Club help us clean the greens and fill the holes on Monday. These guys provide labor that is otherwise unavailable at this time of the year, and they really do a great job. This project is also the major fundraiser for the Turf Club, so it's most definitely mutually-beneficial.
With the great condition that the greens are in, you might be wondering why we find the need to make them sandy and bumpy. However, the benefits are many (thatch removal, increased oxygen in the root zone, deeper roots, better water infiltration and percolation), and a little bit of inconvenience now is worth it in the long run. Blackhawk's old, Poa annua greens have been mostly unscathed over the past two extreme summers, and diligent core aerification is no small factor in our ability to keep them healthy. As I've said before, it's a necessary evil.
I'm going to attempt to take pictures to document the entire process and will post the results next week.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Welcome Rain, Unwelcome Wind
With the good this weekend came the not so good. After going a full two weeks without measurable precipitation, the 0.9" of rain that we received from Saturday through Sunday was much needed. I was already seeing cracks opening up in many rough areas from the lack of moisture, and the rain that we received should really help along the seedlings that germinated from this spring's interseeding. Although we thankfully avoided the severe storms that caused so much damage in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa, the strong winds that accompanied the storm system did create quite the mess on the course. Most of the branches are on the small side, but there were a few big branches that took falls.
On the slope that runs from the clubhouse parking lot towards eight tee, one half of a large oak split and fell onto the parking lot. With it went the cable that provides internet to the clubhouse, but that's much better than hitting a parked car. This morning, Wolfe Tree Services will be coming to cut down the other half of the tree, as it's aimed directly at the golf cart storage building. Otherwise, one of the towering white pines near the fairway bunkers on the sixth hole had a large branch snap off yesterday, and this branch created a domino effect below it. We will be cleaning that up today after the guys from Wolfe cut down the hanging branches.
Besides routine mowing and maintenance, much of our time last week was spent picking up ground stumps and filling in and seeding the remaining holes. All that remains for stumps is a half-ground enormous silver maple between holes one and nine; this stump was worked on for at least four hours and still isn't done.
The other special project that we had time to start last week was bunker edging. Over the years, grass has encroached into many of the bunkers. While you, the golfer, probably don't think that smaller bunkers are a bad thing, the edges become ragged, unsightly, and difficult to maintain due to growing grass in pure sand. In most cases, we can see exactly where the bunkers are supposed to be, but we also use a soil probe to determine their boundaries. Last week, we completed the greenside bunkers on holes one, two and five, the fairway bunkers on hole eleven, and the small top left greenside bunker on nine, and the finished products look really, really nice. We will be doing more of this as time allows.
On the slope that runs from the clubhouse parking lot towards eight tee, one half of a large oak split and fell onto the parking lot. With it went the cable that provides internet to the clubhouse, but that's much better than hitting a parked car. This morning, Wolfe Tree Services will be coming to cut down the other half of the tree, as it's aimed directly at the golf cart storage building. Otherwise, one of the towering white pines near the fairway bunkers on the sixth hole had a large branch snap off yesterday, and this branch created a domino effect below it. We will be cleaning that up today after the guys from Wolfe cut down the hanging branches.
Besides routine mowing and maintenance, much of our time last week was spent picking up ground stumps and filling in and seeding the remaining holes. All that remains for stumps is a half-ground enormous silver maple between holes one and nine; this stump was worked on for at least four hours and still isn't done.
The other special project that we had time to start last week was bunker edging. Over the years, grass has encroached into many of the bunkers. While you, the golfer, probably don't think that smaller bunkers are a bad thing, the edges become ragged, unsightly, and difficult to maintain due to growing grass in pure sand. In most cases, we can see exactly where the bunkers are supposed to be, but we also use a soil probe to determine their boundaries. Last week, we completed the greenside bunkers on holes one, two and five, the fairway bunkers on hole eleven, and the small top left greenside bunker on nine, and the finished products look really, really nice. We will be doing more of this as time allows.
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