Chipping green being aerated with our new core collector attachment

It has been a busy week for the agronomy staff at Sandpines. The grass is growing pretty good at this point. All turf areas were mowed this week. The greens were rolled three times (spiked and rolled one of those times). Tee divots were filled. Greens and approaches were fertilized. Traffic control ropes were removed on holes 4 and 6. The practice chipping green was aerated in order to test out our new core collector. The other practice greens are scheduled to be aerated next week. Greens 1-18 will be aerated on April 21st (after morning play, beginning at 12 noon), 22nd, and 23rd. We are in the process of getting everything in order for the greens aeration so the process can go as smoothly as possible.

This would be a great time to get a round in prior to the greens aeration. The agronomy staff has been receiving numerous compliments on the condition of the golf course. Come on out and check it out for yourself.

I was hoping to see a few more people using the hitting strategy I mentioned in last weeks post. The divot patterns do not lie. Most people are using either the take it all method or the scatter method. To those are attempting to implement our preferred divot pattern, I thank you, and please continue to do so. I am including a link to an article from the USGA on the topic of driving range tee use. To check it out, click on the link below.

http://gsr.lib.msu.edu/article/mcclellan-practice-6-8-12.pdf

http://baileyranchgolfmaintenance.blogspot.com

The picture above was copied (stolen) from Bailey Ranch Golf Maintenance Blog, which is run by Chris Cook. This is what an ideal divot pattern would look when you finish hitting balls on the driving range tee.