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