Week of September 30th: Fall Aerations
- Michael Curtin
- Oct 7, 2024
- 2 min read
The agronomy team has been busy with a number of projects and agronomic work around the golf course. Only the 10th, 11th, and 12th tees remain to be aerated. The front nine tees have all been top-dressed and received a granular application of fertilizer. We are currently unable to top-dress the aerated back nine tees as the master cylinder for the top dresser brakes has failed and is in the process of being replaced. We also have begun the process of fairway aeration, but this will be a slow process over the coming weeks. Our single tractor mounted aerator takes multiple hours to punch a single fairway. Complications like tines breaking/falling out and other equipment failures often slow the process further.
The above images show the cart traffic across a few fairways for a single day. These images give you a sense of the amount of wear and tear the fairways receive day after day from cart traffic. Aeration helps mitigate issues arising from the inevitable compaction caused by cart traffic. Ipswich has a good drainage system and the deep solid tine aeration help facilitate the movement of water into the drains.
The 4th, 5th, and 6th greens were also aerated with a micro hollow tine. This process was mentioned in last weeks blog post after small practice and short game were done. Micro tines are a good way to allow for gas exchange into the greens root zone. They also help with some thatch removal and water infiltration while limiting impact to the playability of the greens. Currently, we are unsure whether we will do all the greens with the micro hollow tine or switch to a micro solid tine on some greens.
1st Hole Rough:
Work also continued this week to the next area of rough along the right-side of one. Crew member Rolando spent a large portion of last week rototilling the area that has been used as the main entrance to the fairway for most of the year. After tilling the entire area some compost was added and the area tilled again before being raked even and seeded. The right side of the rough is now mostly roped or staked off from the tee to the fairway bunker. Please enter the rough to get to the 1st fairway using the obvious large gap in the black and white stakes through the large area that was sodded this spring. This entry point will be changed by us moving the stakes around. This is the same system we use for the start of many other fairways like 14 and 17. Rough restoration will continue around the course in the coming weeks.
Bunkers:
Every year at this time, raking bunkers can become a bit of a fiasco. Tree debris is starting to fall at a steady rate which means bunkers will start to collect leaves, pine, needles, acorns, etc. in the sand. This time of year raking bunkers often requires multiple crew members backpack blowing bunkers ahead of the machine. A task that normally takes one crew member will shortly require three to four. As a result there will unfortunately be days where bunkers can't be raked as other maintenance must take priority.
Random Pictures from the Week:
