A closer look

Well I heard a rumor that it might rain this week, but I will wait and see if I believe that one following yesterday's high temperature of 97 degrees. The course is holding its own and the greens were rolling nice for Labor Day weekend with speeds around 12 on the stimp and fairly firm especially in the afternoon. Areas where we are lacking irrigation have essentially gone dormant but I hope to address some of these areas this fall with some in-house irrigation additions similar to those we undertook last fall.

We will be closed for 3 days September 21, 22, and 23 for aeration of all playing surfaces. I want to show what all this aeration is doing for the greens and the picture below tells a great story. The roots on the greens are traditionally at their shortest this point in the season and our roots are at 2.5 inches where in years past at the end of August we had no more then 1/2 inch of roots. The majority of the aeration practices along with verticutting and topdressing focus on the upper portion of soil profile where the majority of the roots live. The picture also shows deeper roots at the 3 inch mark and even a tiny root at the 5 inch mark which are results of deep tine aeration. The end result is always the quality of the putting surfaces but I thought some members would like to see what's happening under the playing surface.

Soil Profile from Practice Green September 9th