Overseeding Begins!

Today marked the first day the course is closed for our annual fall overseeding. Over the course of the next five days we will be renovating fairways through verticutting and scalping. Once that is complete, we will seed perennial Ryegrass at a rate of 500 lbs per acre. After the seed is put down and worked into the bermudagrass canopy, we will irrigate in short cycles on a very frequent basis in order to keep the seed moist and promote germination. In addtion to overseeding, we also aerified greens utilizing two different machines. Once the holes were punched, we topdressed, applied soil admendments based on recent soil chemical tests and rolled the putting surfaces.
Check back over the next few days to get a detailed account of the process that we will be going through, including pictures, and updates as to how we are progressing.

# 9 greenside

The area between #9 green and the cart path has always been troubled. Three basic problems exist in this area. 1. It is a natural low spot. Water puddles here during rain storms in the winter and during periods of heavy irrigation. 2. It is a high traffic area. Most golf carts traverse through this area after the player hits their approach shot to the green and are parking their cart on the path while putting. 3. The area suffers from insufficient irrigation coverage.

In an effort to remedy the situation today we installed new drainage and supplemental irrigation along the cart path. Once we are done with the work we will then intensely aerify the area and prepare it for overseeding. The new drainage will carry water away during rain storms and the new irrigation will provide water to areas that were previously lacking.

For play this week and until we close for over seeding this area will be marked as Ground Under Repair (GUR). Two Ball Drops have also been provided. If you are in the area marked as GUR and choose to excise your relief options, you may drop in a area not marked as GUR and no nearer to the hole or you may drop in the defined ball drop that is nearest to your ball.

Overseeding Preparation.

The aerification of tees this week marked the beginning of our annual preparation for overseeding. Here are some of the activities that will be taking place in the next few weeks as we prepare for overseeding:

• The height of the rough will be reduced to 1" from our normal cutting height of 2"
• All kikuyu grass in the tees, approaches and collars will be sprayed with a selective herbicide.
• High traffic areas in the roughs will be aerified.
• The fairways and tees will be sprayed with a selective herbicide to remove any remaining Ryegrass and Poa annua. This is an application that we experiemented with last year and had great success in helping to eliminate the Poa annua from our fairways.
• All the roughs and fairways will be sprayed with a growth regulator that will hold back the bermuda and help to allow the newly overseeded ryegrass to establish.
• In the final ten days prior to overseeding will reduce the night time watering of the course to about half of its normal reqiurements.

Through this process we will be making every effort possible to maintain superior playing conditions.