Soccer and sod

Just because the week of aeration is over, doesn’t mean the work stops. Once past that busy week, we turn our attention to soccer and a few small side projects on the golf course.

From the middle of August thru the middle of September, the upper soccer field is closed for maintenance. We aerate, seed, and sod out a few of the worst areas. It gives the field a nice break and refreshes it for the fall season. Once the seed matures and the sod knits down, we put the mowers back on it at a higher height of cut and gradually work it back into playing shape. Despite last year’s fall armyworm outbreak, the timing remains good for us and the soccer players.

A step back showing the area we sodded
behind 8 green

Usually, we have some left over sod once the soccer field is finished. Sometimes we order a little more to add to the leftovers and tackle a few green surround areas that are struggling towards the end of the summer. This was the case again this year and we were able to knock out some of the worst areas. But it didn’t go totally to plan. We encountered three different issues all at once:

1. It was still hot. The sod suffered some damage just from cooking itself while rolled up on the pallet. We laid the new sod as soon as we could, but even just the few hours that it was rolled from when the grower harvested it, to when we laid it, was enough to overheat some of the grass. Most of it will likely recover, and we will be inter-seeding into it in a few weeks to repair what doesn’t recover.
2. Our sod cutter had a small gear oil leak that went unnoticed for most of the time we were using it. We use our sod cutter to remove the trash sod and prepare the area for the new sod. The oil leak wasn’t too big of a deal on the grass we were taking out but maneuvering the machine in the area and driving it across adjacent turf that was not being removed, resulted in some grass inadvertently being killed by the oil. These are the dead or thin areas very near the new sod. It was not that we neglected to repair those areas- they were fine until the oil from the sod cutter killed the grass.
3. We had a malfunctioning sprinkler. The sprinklers have internal gears that makes them rotate. As they wear, the gears can stop working, and the sprinkler stops turning. A sprinkler that won’t turn on at all is much easier to spot than one that is not spinning, so we are not sure how long it was working incorrectly. However, judging by the fact that we had to replace sod right near this particular sprinkler, it likely wasn’t working for quite some time which led to the decline in turf. But now it has also led to poor sod health as well, before we replaced the sprinkler with a new one.

The dead grass to the right of the white line was killed
from the sod cutter gear oil. The dead
grass in the sod pieces is a result of being too hot
while it was rolled and sitting on the pallet.

Not all three of these issues happened at each location, or even happened at all in all locations that we worked. Nevertheless, the improvements we were making did not turn out as good as we had planned. But we will keep pushing and working to get things as good as possible.

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please don’t apply bug spray or sunscreen while standing on greens, tees, or fairways.

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

Golf Cart tips

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org