Rain....and more Rain......

Over the last 24 hours, FCO has been hit with over 4" of rain and more predicted over the next 12-24 hours.  No carts will be out today (Thursday) and best case scenario, we get them out sometime on Friday.  The entire property is completely saturated and will be very soft for the next several days.  When carts are allowed,  PLEASE do your best to avoid the low areas and keep your carts in fairways as they dry faster than the heavily treed rough.  We will do our best to get caught up with the mowing as weather permits hopefully over the next few days.       

Greens and Tee Aerification

Day 1

Day 7

Last week (September 8th) we completed our Fall greens aerification.  I had some extensive profile samples taken in summer to ensure that we make the biggest impact on the greens.  We used 1/2" core @ 1.5" spacing and went 3" deep.  All the holes were filled with sand and as you can see from the pictures above, they are well on their way to a quick recovery.  This is the tightest spacing I've gone since I've been at FCO.  The last 3 years, we went at 2" spacing, but tightened them this year to help with our percolation rates.  After aerification, I fertilized the greens to speed up the recovery  process thus making the greens a bit slower due to the flush growth we're promoting.  Once the recovery process is complete, an application of growth regulator will be made which will essentially shut down the growth and allow us to keep consistent green speeds (especially for the evening golfers).  We have continued to roll the greens (4x/week) which allows the ball to roll true and eliminate any bumps from the aerification holes.  

Tee aerification was also completed last week while the course was closed.  We used 5/8" core @ 2.5" spacing and went 3" deep.  Rather than picking up the cores, we used a mower to pulverize the cores and blew off any remaining debris.  After cleaned, we overseed the tees with Perennial Rye and drug in the seed while the aerification holes are open giving them a nice seed bed for germination.  With the spike in wind and heat, we've been forced to keep the tees softer than we want preventing them from drying out and occurring any turf loss.

Next, we will turn to fairway overseeding.  This will be a 3 day task, but is not an invasive process. Continuing to overseed every year will help keep the fairways dense and lush.  This is commitment we made 3 years ago and have had great support to keep the process intact and the results show.         

#14 and Nursery Sod

With the colder weather on the horizon, we opted to strip out the thin areas on #14 green and re-sod them.  The reason: if the seeded areas did not fill by the time winter hits, there would be a delay in the Spring for opening the green.  With frost delays in the near future, the odds were not in our favor, thus the decision was made to strip it out, fix some grading issues and re-sod.  From my perspective, we will NOT be aggressive in getting the surface mowed down and prepared for opening.  This will be a slow process stepping down the height and continuous topdressing.  This is the best the green has looked all season and I am extremely optimistic on the quality of the putting surface moving forward.  

The nursery area was also re-graded and over 3,000 sq. ft. of sod was put down to replenish that area. We also upgraded the irrigation heads around the nursery area which will give us better coverage in the area giving us more consistent moisture levels.  

Wet Start to the Week....

Last night, we got hit with 4" of rain....with more on the way.  For the most part, the course took it well and left us with only a few areas to pump. As expected, the course is soft and will take longer to dry down due to unseasonably temperature and cloudy conditions over the next few days.    

Course Update through July

July is almost in the books (thankfully) and in the coming few weeks days will begin  to noticeably shorten and humidity will begin to trickle down (hopefully).  I will use this post to summarize the past few weeks as it's been a while since I've put out a post.  

This month has been filled with extreme heat, humidity and gross dew points.  Those three factors make for very high disease pressure (dollar spot, brown patch, pythium, and grey leaf spot).  At FCO, we are very susceptible to fungal disease due to the lack of air movement and having Perennail Ryegrass as the primary species of turf in the Tees and Fairways.  To help combat the pressures, we closely monitor the moisture levels with our moisture meters and avoid over watering.  Luckily, we've missed the majority of the 'pop up' thunderstorms that have hit hard south of the metro.  Chemical controls are used as well to keep the turf plant healthy and disease free.  To date, we have a few 'dings' in the fairways, but I would consider it a successful month with the conditions we were delt.  

Greens Update:  

#2:  We removed the pieces of sod that got hot and re-sodded them and roped them off.  That green is on the mend now and will no longer be an issue in the coming weeks.  

#13:  This green has filled in nicely and has made positive improvements weekly.  Once the heat breaks, we'll continue to needle tine and topdress (all greens) which will aide in recovery and filling in.

#14:  Since closing, this green has been overseeded with bentgrass seed three times.  If you look at it, you'll notice all the newly germinated seedlings and see that it's filling in nicely.  I foliar apply fertilizer and fungicide to this green weekly to help it along.  I am on the green daily to scout for disease (melting out and damping off)  which is a major concern given the amount of seed we've drilled into it.  We are planning to re-open the green on August 11th, but will continue to monitor and open as soon as it's ready.  

Greens Overseeding

Today we overseeded greens with 'Pure Select' Creeping Bentgrass.  We are/will be doing this yearly in the summer (possibly 2x/year) with a goal to incorporate more bentgrass in the putting surface and push out as much Poa as possible.  Why seed in the heart of summer?  This is when the Poa plant is at its weakest, so this will give the bentgrass a chance to get established.  This is being done to get ahead of the game and in hopes to help reduce our winter kill issues.  

We took this approach to the  tees and fairways over the past three years.  We committed and more importantly, STAYED committed to our overseeding program on these surfaces.  We overseed them at a rate of 6lb/M (Perennial Ryegrass) yearly and have had great results in doing so.  Hopefully we have the same success on the greens as we did the tees and fairways.        

Fun Fest Week

Tip of the cap goes to the maintenance team at FCO for their hard work and going above and beyond the normal duties to help get the course 'dialed in'.  As a whole, this is the best the course has looked and played and it came at a perfect time.  Without those guys busting it day in and day out, we wouldn't have the consistent product that we get.  Please let them know that their efforts are appreciated as you come across them on the course.  That goes a long ways!