Week of March 20th

 

What a great weather week.  This week had a touch of spring with temperatures in the 60's and we even reached 77 on Thursday.  The maintenance team had a great week wrapping up some projects and starting new ones.  

On Monday we fired up the irrigation system and started our spring audit.  With the predicted temperatures in the 60's and 70's we started watering greens to work sand in from the drill and fill process.  The rain that is coming at the end of this week should help knock the rest of the sand in so we can start working on good quality mows and working on texture for this spring.  

On Tuesday the team knocked out another truck load of sod.  This will be the last 20,000 sq.ft. of rough sod for this season wrapping up all the areas around the course.  The team laid 18 pallets on Tuesday, sodding the clubhouse areas and dew walks through the new native areas and the remaining 2 pallets of sod will be used where needed.

Also this week we completed another round of punching on all the areas from construction in anticipation of  the rain coming at the end of the week.  Juan and Diego walked over 5 miles on Wednesday completing this in one day.   

This week the team started our spring aerification on fairways, completing 6 holes.  This is a process.  We use our tractors to punch about a 3-inch deep hole to remove the thatch that will help with compaction and water infiltration.  Once the core is dry we then drag each fairway 2 to 3 times to break up the core leaving just the thatch on top.  After the dragging is complete we then blow the debris into the rough and start the process of cleaning up the rough.  With 7 holes remining we will continue punching fairways with the hope of finishing next week weather dependent.  

The team also starting sodding some bunker faces that thinned out from last summer.  This is a very labor intensive project.  The bunker faces are too steep to use any machines and all the work has to be done by hand.  This will take time but should be completed over the next couple weeks.   

Lastly, the practice area is open!!!  Thursday the team opened the practice areas for the season.  The practice putting green came out of winter better than I thought.  As this green is still new, we will continue to keep a close eye on its performance and we'll be working on removing the sod layer with aerification throughout the spring.  

Thanks for reading.