12 green basking in the sun

The weather in February has not been as dry as the previous few months, but there have still been good days for playing golf. I have received a number of compliments on how well the greens are rolling lately. It has been awhile since I have played a round of golf, but I am starting to get the itch. Hopefully, I will get out soon.

Jerry mowing 6 green

Yesterday, we walk mowed the greens with the groomers engaged. We don't walk mow greens very often due to the extra labor required, but the triplex reels with groomers are being rebuilt at the moment. The greens are not growing a whole lot right now, but there is some lateral growth that we have been wanting to mow. The groomers are blades mounted between the front roller and reel that cut any lateral growth near the surface of the green. Grooming is similar to verticutting, but much less aggressive. Yesterday, Peterson set the depth of the groomers to about the thickness of a nickel (1/16 of an inch) below the rollers for a light grooming. Groomers can be set lower, but going more than 1/8 of an inch below the rollers is hard on the equipment. With verticutting, the blades are wider and the depth below the rollers is typically at least 3/16 of an inch. Grooming is used to reduce grain by cutting the laterally growing grass blades near the surface of the green. Verticutting is usually employed to remove organic matter (thatch) below the surface of the green.

Surface of a green after light grooming yesterday

Most of our time lately has been spent on routine maintenance tasks such as: mowing, changing hole locations, raking bunkers, moving tee markers, filling tee divots, and cleaning up wind blown debris.  In addition, we have been continuing our brushing clearing efforts between holes 3 and 4, and also between holes 3 and 13. The chances of locating and playing a ball that goes into the trees in these areas has improved dramatically.

Hole 17

27 degrees and snow mixed with sleet as I am writing this post

I have been waiting for a good opportunity to do some blogging. I knew today was going to be the day when the snow and sleet began to fall. The weather has been mostly great for golf so far in 2014. In the past few weeks we have even seen some highs in the 60's at Sandpines. There was a 15 day stretch in January with no precipitation. It was the first time I can remember thinking that we may need to irrigate in January. Thankfully, we received some rain at the end of the month and irrigation was not required.

 Jerry filling up the top dresser

Jerry top dressing hole 2

The dry stretch of weather was a great opportunity to top dress the fairways. Anytime we get a chance to top dress fairways it is like killing two birds with one stone. Obviously we get the benefits associated with top dressing, such as firming and smoothing the surfaces of the fairways. However, we also get an opportunity to get rid of some sand that is encroaching onto hole 7 from the adjacent dune. Having an abundance of sand is a nice problem to have, but only if you have the ability to use it before it takes over the golf course. This past summer, we accumulated sand much more rapidly than we could use it. We have tried to use as much as we can, but as you can see below, we are not going to run out anytime soon.

Encroaching sand dune on hole 7

We have also been clearing brush between holes 3 and 4. Many players have found themselves looking for their ball between holes 3 and 4. While the combination of shore pines, wax myrtles, salal, and huckleberry bushes is beautiful to look at, it is nearly impossible to play golf out of. We have not finished the project yet, but we are making good progress.

Area between holes 3 and 4 before brush clearing

Area between holes 3 and 4 after brush clearing

In addition to brush clearing between holes 3 and 4, we have also been removing snags and lower limbs in order to open the area up and make it more playable. A couple of huge tree debris piles that have accumulated over the past few years were also cleaned up. Chris Gibson, owner of Wildtree Enterprises brought in an 18" Vermeer chipper and turned the huge debris piles into wood chips. We are in the process of using the wood chips to stabilize a recently built sand road.

Huge pile of tree debris turned into wood chips

The new tee box on hole 8 has been a work in progress. We have worked on it as time has permitted. Last week, it was leveled, seeded, and peated. I don't have a time table for when the new tee will be open. I will keep you posted. In the meantime, please stay off of the new tee so it can grow in.

A lazer level was used to establish proper slope for surface drainage

Our Sandpro lightly fluffed the surface prior to seeding
After seeding, the Sandpro was used to wheel walk the sand and seed

Peat moss was applied with our Ty-crop Quickpass top dresser