Early signs of recovery

This upcoming week will remind us of July, but we finally got a quick break last week, and we are headed in the right direction now. We have been working hard on our recovery programs and the weather finally helped a little.

We were treated to some much-needed cool overnight temperatures and a few mild day-time highs as well. Not only are these beneficial for the existing turf on the greens, it is also great for the seed we have been putting out. Many physiological processes within the turf plant slow considerably or cease altogether when air temperature, soil temperature, or both get too high. Having both measurements lower has helped tremendously.

This is the hand dimple seeder we used on the greens
as well as collars.

Here is a close-up view of the actual 
spikes on the seeder. Each spike pokes a small hole
and we spread seed into the holes by hand.

All bad areas on greens have been seeded twice now. The seed has germinated and is growing already. This is a good start, but we are a long way from full recovery. We will continually make light, soluble fertilizer applications to promote growth and vigor. This young grass must establish itself and be ready to handle the heat, humidity, and stress to which the original turf succumbed.

While it works to grow, we will also be encouraging these seedlings to spread laterally to fill in the voids. We do this by mowing the grass and slowly decreasing the height of cut. This process cannot be rushed, or the young grass will be shocked by the abrupt scalping and die.

If you look closely you can see the evenly spaced tufts of 
grass in the bad area. These are the new seedlings
growing in the small holes created by the dimple seeder.

A wider shot showing all of the new seedlings in an over-seeded area.

We are halfway done seeding the collars also. At this point, we are doing this by hand, to maximize the amount of seed we get out and to get the seed more accurately where it is needed. Later in the fall, we will seed the collars again using our tractor-mounted seeder, which does a great job in big areas but cannot maneuver in small spaces. No seeds have germinated on the collars yet, but we expect it to begin soon. As we monitor the development, if more seed is needed, we will not hesitate to go around the course again.

While we are far from healed and back to normal, the process has started, and the early results are encouraging. We will continue to be diligent to get the course back to what we all expect as soon as possible.

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please be conscious to not cut corners with your golf cart. The inside edges of turns are easily worn out after repeated traffic.

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Bunker etiquette

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org