Aeration

This past Tuesday the greens department completed aerification of all the putting greens.  We didn't pull cores as we had originally planned because the weather forecast looked like it would be quite wet.  As it turned out it didn't rain and we would have been fine to pull cores but hindsight is 20/20.  So, instead we used 3/4" solid tines and aerated to a depth of 4". We topdressed the greens prior to aerating them, once the sand was dry they were brushed and rolled which was followed by an application of granular fertilizer.  A few days before aeration I made a liquid fertilizer application that helps to get the turf growing laterally for faster aeration recovery.  I was quite impressed with the speed at which the holes closed, three days after aeration I would estimate 75% of the holes were completely closed.

This is 3 days post aerification

This is 7 days post aerification

Just a reminder

Please remember that we will be aerating September 19th and 20th and that the course will be closed these days.  Aeration is a vital agronomic practice and can only benefit the golf course going forward, thank you for your patience and understanding.   Please follow us on twitter @MadisonGCgreens for course updates.

Course Update

Somebody must sure be looking out for us because every time the course gets a little too dry we get a nice soaking rain.  That is no different today, because we needed the almost .6" of rain we received a short time ago with potentially severe storms looming for later this afternoon.  As I'm sure many of you have heard we lost two employees last week, which means it's just myself, Bob, and Angel to carry the load.  I'm proud as hell of these guys because they've worked their tails off the past week and it has showed, in my opinion the golf course looks just as good as when we were fully staffed. So, kudos to them.  This past monday the greens were dryjected with the soil amendment profile. The greens were brushed and rolled followed by a mow the next day.  This is a great process that allows the greens to breathe while also creating channels for the roots to shoot down.  A huge benefit is that the entire process is quick and minimally invasive to play.  We will be core aerating the greens on Sept. 19th and 20th, followed by fairway aerification Oct. 16th and finally by a deep tine aeration on November 20th.

#3 green after the green has been brushed, you can hardly tell anything was done at all.

#9 green the day after being dryjected

Beautiful Sunday in July

Just a few pictures I took on my ride around changing cups this morning.

Notice the roots coming out of the bottom of the cup cutter plug, about 10" long, pretty incredible for the end of July .

#5 green hanging strong this year, the weather from the past week surely helped.

Late July Course Update

July has been a very up and down month weather wise.  It was fairly normal for the first half but then the heat and humidity reared their ugly heads with pop up thunderstorms in the afternoons.  This can be a recipe for disaster but I was happy to see the course come through it with only a few bumps and bruises.  The rain we received Saturday night and Monday morning was a welcomed sight, the daytime and nighttime temps have come way down and have given the golf course a chance to breathe again.  We vented some of the greens yesterday and finished up today due to the rain.  This is a vital practice as it promotes gas exchange and allows the turf to breathe, there is also a hormone in the roots that gets stimulated by splitting the root which in turn allows the root to branch off more making for healthier turf.

Bob venting the 3rd green.  The playing surface is minimally disturbed and the aeration holes are relatively unnoticeable once the green is rolled.

We've also been busy edging bunkers and adding new sand where needed.  This gives the bunkers a fresh look and helps to make them stand out.  I do ask that when you enter and exit and a bunker that you do it on the low side, please don't walk up the face of the bunkers.  This destroys the edge and came make for some unplayable situations.  Just a reminder that we will be dry-jecting the greens on Monday, August 15th and the course is closed September 19th and 20th for greens aeration.  Enjoy the nice weather!

Family tee markers

As I'm sure many of you have already noticed we switched from the painted black tee markers to a plate in the center of the fairways for the family tees.  On holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 the markers can be found in the center of the fairways at varying distances.  On the 7th hole the marker is located at the front of the upper tee and on the 8th hole it's located at the front of the forward tee.  Craig has made up new scorecards and can be found in the pro shop.  These tees are great for kids just learning the game or anyone for that matter.

Don't be this guy

This picture was taken on the 2nd green this morning, as you can see someone took their frustrations out by taking a divot from the green.  Please don't be this guy, the grounds department takes great pride in being able to produce a golf course that the membership can be proud of on a daily basis.  To steal a quote from Arnold Palmer, "Enjoy your round, you're not good enough to get mad."

Playing through...

It seems we had a little visitor here last night checking out the conditions here at MGC.  I've asked quite a few people and they all seem to be in agreement that it is just a harmless corn snake. Although harmless it is enough to give you quite the scare.  If you see him out there just leave him alone and you'll be fine.

#7 tee and cart path restoration

     We hope everyone enjoyed the weather of the past few weeks because it seems to be coming to an end with temps soaring into the low 90's these past few days.  We get a bit of a break today and tomorrow and the golf thanks mother nature.  We here in the grounds department have completed a few small projects to go along with the daily maintenance of the golf course.  We added black-eyed susan, daylily, and zebra grass around the newly finished wall on #7 lower tee.  We also squared off the tee to give it a better look.  Another ongoing project is the restoration of the cart paths.  We edged the paths, add soil and seed to the weaker areas, and finally added new cart path material to the existing paths. Stay cool out there!

Black eyed Susan, daylily, and Zebra Grass along the new retaining wall

edging and adding the new cart path material

Soil has been added and is then prepped for seed

Newly established seed germinating

Squaring off the tee gives it a much cleaner look

White lines and blue dots

I've had quite a few members come up to me and ask what's up with the white lines in the fairways and the blue dots on the greens.  We are using the blue dots as marker for our greens mowers in order to achieve uniformity for the widths of the collars.  The greens will be dotted as needed throughout the golf season.  We're also transitioning away from the cart signs in the fairways and replacing them with a painted white line.  We think this looks cleaner and it also prevents shots from ricocheting off the signs.  The white lines show where the golf carts are supposed to exit the fairway and return to the cart path when possible.  The lines will be rotated up and down the fairway to limit wear from the carts.  I will have a printed sheet posted in the pro shop as a reminder for this new method.

Course Update

Following a cold start to Spring, temperatures have finally begun to normalize and with that soil temperatures are consistently over 55 degrees allowing the turf to finally begin to grow with some regularity.  Due to the inconsistency of the weather the bentgrass on the greens, tees, and fairways was slow to come around and had taken on a purplish hue.  This is no longer case and it has greened up nicely.  Last week we applied a granular fertilizer (Polyon) with an insecticide (Acelepryn) and a pre-emergent herbicide (Dimension) all rolled into one in the rough and greens and bunker surrounds.  This product saved us time and money by allowing us to make a singular application instead of the usual two applications, one for the granular fertilizer and one for the insecticide and herbicide.  Just a reminder, the golf course will be closed on Tuesday, May 9th for fairway aerification.  This was originally scheduled for April 4th but due to the weather had to be pushed back.  Finally, please remember to fix ball marks, replace divots, and only use the divot mix on the tees, fairways, and approaches.  Enjoy your weekend and I hope to see you out there.

Course Update

We are finally starting to get Spring like weather here at MGC and with that the golf course has begun to fully wake up.  These past couple of weeks have been quite challenging, the snowstorm set us back a couple of weeks and then it seemed like we would get an inch of rain every other day.  This has made it quite tough to get into a nice routine for course maintenance.  We have been mowing greens, tees, fairways, and the roughs but not as regularly as I would like.  The fairways are still quite shaggy from the inconsistency of mowing but the next few days look to be pretty good which will allow us to get a lot of work done.  The walls on the forward tee on #7 are finished and now they just needs some plantings and some minor sod work to square off the tee, that the maintenance staff will complete in the coming weeks. Please be mindful of your course etiquette while playing, replace all divots, keep carts away from greens, and fix your ball marks, please.  Remember, this is your golf course, so let's keep it in the best shape possible!

Topdressing Greens

There are a multitude of agronomic practices that are routinely done on golf course putting green but few are as misunderstood as sand topdressing.  When golfers see that the greens are being topdressed, you can almost guarantee to hear "the greens were so nice and rolling great, why do they have to do that?" Well, there are a lot of benefits to doing this and here are just a few.  Topdressing helps to greatly improve the smoothness of the greens by filling in small voids that hamper how true the ball rolls.  Sand drains extremely well and resists compaction so if you stay on a consistent light topdressing plan during the season the properties of the soil improves greatly.  It also helps with the suppression of thatch, which is simply debris that builds up over time within the rootzone which increases the likelihood of mower scalping and localized dry spot. These are just a few of the benefits of being on a light topdressing program on a regular basis throughout the golf season.  So, the next time your golfing buddies say, "this isn't necessary or needed", you can proudly say, "yes it is and here is why."

The 2nd green being topdressed yesterday in anticipation of today's rain.

The sand that was applied is no longer visible due to the rain pushing it down into the turf canopy.