End of year Agronomy

Winter is here and the agronomy team is nearly completed all the essential work for next season. The irrigation system has been blown out and winterized, tee boxes have been covered, accessories are being brought in for winter servicing, and the aeration, fertilization, and seeding of all the playing surfaces are nearly complete.

By completing this late season aeration work we are setting the golf course up for great conditions next spring. Once weather starts to warm up we will be focused on playing conditions and not doing any major aeration. There are also two major agronomic benefits of doing our "spring aeration" in the winter. One, our region often has warm spells in the winter, during these days we may get some enhances of the recovery of the playing areas. Two, by having large pore spaces opened we may get more heaving and fracturing of the soils during freezing and thawing cycles, leading to extra aeration of the playing surfaces.

Greens
The greens are the last area of the golf course that we have disturbed, this is in an effort to give the membership good fall putting conditions as long as possible. As I write this we have just a few greens left to aerate, fertilize, seed and topdress. It is important to note that we do not plan on doing an early spring aeration. Rather when the greens are opened in the spring we will be focusing on playing conditions right away.

Tees and Approaches
The tee and approaches have all received their fall agronomy work. Several of the tees have been covered to ensure they are ready for the spring. These include some of our high volume par three tees, the range tee, and the tee boxes on 9. Covering any playing surface with winter solar covers generally puts those areas two weeks ahead of the other surfaces for spring green up.
 
Fairways and Rough
All of the fairways and the in-play rough have also received their fall agronomy. The fairways will be deeptined if weather allows. This process will go a long way in creating even more soil heaving and fracturing over the winter, creating large pore space deeper in our soil profile for deeper rooting in the spring. A few high traffic areas of rough will be sodded in before Christmas and additional winter seeding will be done as weather allows.

Thank you all for a wonderful 2020. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I wish you all a Merry Christmas, blessed holidays, and a happy New Year!!!!