Aerification Begins!

We started aerification yesterday. We completed deep tining all of the greens and aerification on the putting and chipping green. This morning we begin finishing the aerification process on #1 and will be working in order. Typically we finish nine holes today and nine holes tomorrow. However, due to the rain in the forecast for tonight and continuing into tomorrow we will be aerifying as many greens as possible today.
Our Spring time aerification is a 12 step process:
1. Deep tine using a 3/4" diameter tine that goes 9" into the ground.
2. Roll green to smooth any tuffing from the deep tine machine.
3. Aerify greens and approaches. We are using 1/2" diameter tines on a 1.5" x 1.5 inch spacing.
4. Pick up plugs. This is done the old fashion way with scoop shovels and muscle.
5. Blow clean green surface.
6. Verticut green.
7. Mow green with groomers in the on position.
8. Top dress with #30 silica sand. It takes about 100 tons to cover 190,000 sq.ft.
9. Drag green to work sand into holes
10. Use power brushes attached to a triplex greens mower help smooth sand over entire surface.
11. Apply fertilizer. Nutrients quanites are applied based on soil and tissue tests.
12. Irrigate one heavy cycle to help settle sand into the holes and start the recovery process.

April Fools week

Just wanted to give a quick update as to what is happening on the course this week.

• We are aerifying roughs in traffic areas. We will finish aerification this week and then apply wetting agents and soluble calcium. This process should help keep our high traffic area looking good well into the summer. The photo shows the aerified rough between the cart path and fairway near #18 green.
• Thursday morning we grounded the stump on #2. We will be cleaning this up and sodding the area. We will then be adding 2 pines in that area.
• We added an irrigation head in # 5 fairway. We have a historically dry zone in #5 fairway that we continually have add supplemental water. To help eliminate the constant hand watering of this area we have added an irrigation head that we be controlled from our irrigation system.
• We prepping all of our machines for greens and approach aerification next week. Aerification will be just like last year's Spring aerification. We will utilize deep tines along with shallow hollow tines and then filling the holes with sand. Estimated full recovery is 11 to 12 days. I will post more on aerification in the next few days.
• One final thing, we have added 3 stalls at the range. Due to the season and the quick recovery time in the spring we can accommodate more stalls. When the heat of the summer kicks in and turf recovery slows we will have to re-evaluate our range stall situation.

Wild Week of Weather!

Last Thrusday we hit 87.5 degrees, then we cooled off by Sunday to 53 degrees and 4/10" of rain. Following rain Monday brought us winds that hit 45 mph. Now that the wind has subsided we have hit 30 degrees that last two mornings. These are big swings that keep us on our toes when it comes to managing the golf course.

The winds brought one casuality:

This is the pine that was on #2 hole about 100 yds from the green right of the fairway.

The winds also left us with a lot of debris to clean up. In addition to cleaning up debris this week, we have aerified tees, verticut and topdressed greens and repaired a main line irrigation break behind #14 green.

Getting back to Normal

After a very successful AT&T our maintenance operation as been full steam ahead in getting the golf course back into shape for the membership. The first priority is getting the rough mowed. On Tuesday we mowed all the rough on holes 1, 10, 18 and 2 thur 9. Today we will finish the rough on holes 11 thur 17 and then head back to the other holes. The current rough cutting height is 2 1/4" Within a few weeks we hope to be back to our normal height of 2"

Here is a photo of rough mowing taking place this morning.

Practice Round

Practice Rounds started today. Very few pros are out today as it is probably a recovery day for those that played in Newport Beach. Richie is out on the course playing his practice round with our Head Pro Mr. Cliver. Between the two of them I am sure that they can figure out the course.

Rich's tee time for the pro-am on Wednesday is 7:40 of the 1st tee.

Final grooming is taking place on the course. The roughs are being topped at 2.25" and the greens are rolling 11 feet on the stimpmeter. This picture was taken of the 8th hole a few minutes ago.

Rainy President's Day

As of 8am this morning we have had 3/4" of Rain. The rain currently has tampered off to a light drizzle. As you can see from the photo above many of the greens have a lot of standing water.

Currently the course is closed until noon. At that time we will reassess that saturated conditions and determine whether or not we will open. Our decision will be based on whether or the not the course can accommodate play with out causing long lasting damage. When the greens are saturated a foot print or indentation can be seen for a long time.

Weather up date.

A quick weather up date. Since my La Nina posting we have had some rain. Over the past 6 days we have received 2.25" of rain with a little amount of hail mixed in for good measure. Yesterday and Today have been good drying out days for the course. Today, once the frost cleared, we were able to get the mowing fleet on the course. We are trying to get everything mowed prior to the next forecasted rain event on Friday.
Now that things have settled back down after the "transition" events of the past few weeks I promise to be more diligent writing entries to keep you up to date about the golf course.