Course Update November

The golf season is sadly coming to an end. The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder. We have had some great weather over the past few weeks and the course has been in great shape. The agronomy team is balancing continuing with daily conditions while starting our end of season punch list. 

Tees and Approaches
The tees and approaches continue to perform better and better every year. A big part of their health has been the commitment of the agronomy team to multiple core aeration events. The team has begun the late fall aeration on the tees and approaches. With the warm dry weather we experienced early this week, the process is going very smoothly. These playing surfaces will be ready to go next spring.

Greens
The warm and dry fall has helped the greens to continue to grow, while providing excellent playing conditions. We will be completing our late fall greens core aeration next week to correlate with the last day that scores can be recorded. In an effort to minimize the disturbance of winter and early spring golf we are making several changes to our aeration process.  We have moved the date up two weeks, smaller diameter coring tine will be used and we will be covering the greens with a darker organic topdressing to promote heat and microbial activity over the winter. We understand that any aeration is a cause for disappointment from our golfers.  Balance the needs of the turf, with the needs of the golfers is one of our primary goals. 

Fairways
The fairways have had a great season. The core aeration in August set up for a wonderful fall for the 25 acres of pristine bentgrass. I received a few questions last week after the rain about some of the soil visible on a few of the fairways, most notably #4. This soil was actually worm casting from worms coming to the surface during the extended saturation. While worm castings are not ideal we will continue to monitor them. At the end of the month we will start to deep solid tine aerate the fairways. This process helps with soil infiltration and drainage, by fracturing the deeper layers of soil and creating new pore space for roots and air. 

Fescue and Rough
The rough seeding completed in September and early October has payed off nicely. Seedlings are popping and filling in thin areas all over the course. Almost all the fescue areas have been cut down, and selective herbicides have been applied to keep the weed population down for next season.