Verticutting Greens

You may have noticed we verticut and sanded the greens last week to remove organic matter. This process is similar to thatching your home lawn and is needed to thin and smooth the putting greens by removing thatch. By topdressing right after the sand helps dillute more thatch and fill small depressions from ball marks, footprints and other surface imperfections.

Thatch is a layer of dead and living roots, shoots and leaf blades right below the surface. To much thatch will cause bumpy and soft surfaces that do not receive balls well and impede water penetration.

It is a time consuming process with many steps.

1. Mow the green with good reels.
2. Verticut with thatching reels while collecting the organic matter and dumping it into a waiting cart. The mower baskets are emptied every other pass or they overflow with material.
3. Loose material is blown off the greens.
4. Mow the greens twice to remove more loose material and cut straggler blades off.
5. Apply a light layer of sand.
6. Roll the green with vibratory rollers to mover the sand material into the green.
7. Water and wait for healing.

A freshly verticut and blown green. The green is then cut twice before sand is applied.

A muddy Cushman cart full of organic material removed from only two greens.

Although the lines in the green are visible for a few weeks ball roll is only affected for a day or two and greens are smoother and faster immediatly after sanding. The downfall is the sand is sticky in the morning for the first few days so it sticks to balls until the dew burns off.

You may remember we used to verticut 9 holes three Mondays in a row but found that interfered with putting for three weeks so now we verticut all three 9's in one day to increase course quality for all players. 

Although it seems we preform these agronomic practices just as the greens reach perfection, these projects are why they reach perfection! Thank you for your support.

Culvert Collapse

You may have noticed the gaping hole in the cart path on hole 1 for the first half of the season. At some point the 24" x 20' plastic culvert collapsed allowing the soil to fall in and wash down stream. Luckily the sink-hole was to the one side so golfers and carts could still gain access to the first fairway.

Oddly enough a 3" irrigation line crossed right over collapsed part of the culvert so our opinion is the irrigation crew damaged the pipe during installation and covered up the incident. That lasted 17 years until the area collapsed. Luckily it was over winter and not while a customer or employee was crossing the creek.

One challenge to the job was to stop the water flow so we could install the new culvert. We did this by building a dam upstream and pump downstream to provide as dry as workplace as possible.

It took three of us a full day to remove the old culvert, prep the area and install the new culvert. We have no doubt the new culvert will last 50 years of more without issue.

As you play the hole you may notice the creek is holding water. We did change the grade to get the new culvert under the irrigation pipe and after things firm up we will need to work downstream to improve water flow and clean out debris.

In case you have not noticed there is always work to do on the golf course!

Almost Showroom New

Each off-season we pick one special project that might not need to be done but could be done to make something work better or look better. This year we choose to paint a classic golf course tractor, our 1972 Jacobsen G-10.

The G-10 has a three point lift, belt drive PTO and 3 speeds. This tractor will never pull a plow but is a great unit for pulling trailers or a gang reel mower through the rough. Comfortable to drive the G-10's gasoline engine is quite for a 50HP power unit.

The decals were no longer available from the manufacture but we had some custom made by the Graphic Center in Fond du Lac at a great price.

The finished unit looks great thanks to James hard work and efforts to bring back that showroom shine.

Don't throw that tank away!

We have purchased a new sprayer for the golf course.  The old one was from 1997 and served us well with only a few parts and a new pump every few years.  Now what to do with the old one?  Some of the parts we took off to save for when we need them and others were taken to the scrapyard for a few bucks in the brat fund.

The 200 gallon tank was plastic so it could not be scrapped for metal but it was in good condition.  We decided to make it into the water tank for trees and flowers.  After we removed most of the parts we mounted it to a homemade skid so it would sit in the back of a cushman truckster without taking the box off.  Then a simple length of 1 1/4" hose with a valve at the end and off we went.

It worked great for planting last weeks trees and much faster then the old 35 gallon drum we had.  By using the skid we elevated the outlet to increase the gravitational push on the water so we can apply a large amount of water in a hurry if we want.

The tank should last 15 years until it is time for the next sprayer and we can do the job over again.

Shown is the 200 gallon water tank next to a new Cherry Tree.

Tree Planting

Stuarts Nursery in Fond du Lac had a stock reduction sale to sell their 2.5" and above nursery stock with great trees for only $90.   Considering these trees often cost $250 to $320 this was too good to pass up and we purchased a variety of oak, maple, cherry, beech, ironwood and coffeetree's for the golf course.

46% of our trees are ash and will expected to die in the next 10 years both due to age and the emerald ash borer, so it is important we keep planting trees.  Our goal is not to have tree lines fairways as that is not the type of course we have but to use trees as back drops and to provide definition to holes.

We took delivery of 16 nice specimens and planted them behind the greens on holes 5,7,8 and 20 to make up for ash and maples that in decline.  The current trees are too close to the greens causing problems with airflow, shade and roots encroaching under the green.  So although these trees are not close to the green they will be visually appealing for years to come.  Other trees were placed right of hole 8 to replace three pines that died and one oak left of 22 fairway to separate it from hole 16.  The last tree is a cherry and will be planted near the clubhouse area for aesthetics. 

On the subject of trees we have quite a few of memorial trees throughout the golf course and a plaque in the clubhouse stating the person the tree is for, the year, the type and location of the tree.

Mike Nelson steadies the tree while it is being backfilled.

What a stretch of weather!!!!

We must thank Mother Nature for this just incredible stretch of weather that not only took us from snow to open in 5 days but has provided some of the best March turf conditions ever.  The crazy thing is not only are the days summerlike the nights are summer like with lows in the mid 50's or higher.  Greens are being mowed daily while we are nearing summer schedule on tees and fairways. 

We have not mowed rough yet but just like your lawns it is time.  The bad thing is once we start mowing it encourages growth so the more we need to mow, the same will happen at home so get that lawnmower tuned up.

Trees are starting to bud and should be hardy through any cold snaps but if you have fruit trees you really need to hope for some cooler nights to slow the process.  If it freezes after they go to far you will lose your crop for the year.

Due to the early opening we are going the first few weeks with the tees open but no tee markers allowing players to tee off wherever they want.  The golfers seem to enjoy it and the staff mowing tees do not mind not having to pick up 90 rocks per 9 holes.

If you have played the front 9 you may have noticed the sink hole on the path between hole 1 white and silver tee.  We will not know how or why until we dig it up but the 24" plastic culvert but it seems to have been crushed and moved underground by some force of nature.  The new pipe is ordered and will be here next week. 

Enjoy your time out on the course during these bonus days!

Not open yet, but soon.

Wow what an amazing change in the weather!  We were able to open the driving range on Friday March 9th and will open 18 holes on the golf course on Tuesday March 12th.  Last weeks 8" snow melted fast but left the ground pretty soft and then Thursday night the low was 22 and Friday never got over 34 so that slowed our progress and prevented a weekend opening.

I took a long walk on the course Saturday and while the turf is still quite dormant everything looks healthy with little damage from ice, voles or snow molds.  The ground was still frozen solid in most places from Fridays cold temps but is thawed now.  We do have quite a bit of snow between hole 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 while 15 green has at least 10" on the left half.

You can see only the front right corner is clear of snow.  I expect that to be gone by the end of this week.

We will be walking only on Tuesday but without rain we should be able to allow carts soon.  We are going to start without formal tee markers and just have a sign asking players to tee off wherever they want for the first few days.

I hope to see you on the links!