Week of September 18th
- Matthew Behl
- Sep 24, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 27, 2023
Tee aeration is just about complete and is scheduled to be completed on Monday, September 25th. Once tee aeration is complete we will be looking to aerate the short game greens, the range targets, possibly start approaches, or complete some cultural practices to greens.
We had planned on starting some work to greens this Tuesday, but we have lost too many of what I call "agronomy days" in the past week and will lose more in the upcoming week. "Agronomy days" is where work is completed that contributes to the short term or long term success of the golf course. For example 9/18 we had a golf outing and rain. 9/19 the course was saturated and the agronomy team was very limited on what could be completed. 9/20 was spent on four ball prep. 9/21 - 9/24 all of our efforts were put into fourball. We now also have events Monday, 9/25 and Tuesday, 9/26 of this week. Wednesday and Thursday will be our first "agronomy days" in over a week and we will need to catch up on chemical and fertility applications (short term golf course success) before any cultural practices (long term golf course success) can occur. This has changed my thinking on what we will be doing to greens and no solid decision has been made at this point. Our full efforts are now on getting greens prepared for winter and improving their performance for next season.
There are many reasons why we aerate, but another one is illustrated here. Turf is a living breathing organism that we are asking to do things it was not designed to do. Turf doesn't want to be mowed at under an 1/8 of an inch, doesn't want equipment crossing it daily, or all of the wear and traffic that is placed on it from golf. We recently had a putting contest associated with one of our outings. It was a warm and humid day and a full field of golfers. This equated to 144 golfers standing in the exact same spot and adjusting their feet before taking their putt. I had given this group a mat to stand on, but they chose not to use it. The turf succumbed to the amount of wear placed upon it. The only turf that was able to handle the traffic was the turf living in the aeration holes. Thus another example of why we aerate.
We have ended looking for staff to fill out the agronomy team for the year. It is too late in the season to get someone properly trained and finding someone for just two months or so of employment will be difficult. The agronomy team will be finishing out this season with a very small crew. Hopefully, I do not lose anymore staff members. This is the time staff starts looking for work to carry them through the winter months and I suspect I might lose some more.
The short game tee was recently over seeded. We will be doing some before and after's at some point, but as most of you know when the range was closed for renovation the tee took a beating with heavy use. This week the short game tee received it's first mowing. The tee will remain closed for the remainder of the season.
