Course Update

Despite the rain and dreary days this week we were able to accomplish many tasks on the golf course. We verticut greens twice this week in two different directions removing a good amount of material including many long laid over blades of grass. We went aggressive this week as the window of cool weather is closing thus limiting our ability to verticut. The tees were also verticut and fertilized this week to generate some recovery from last weeks heat. The tees had not been verticut previously and the amount of material we removed was simply amazing. Our goal with all of this verticutting is a more denser and healthier turf canopy that is both aesthetically pleasing and much more playable. Monday I will be topdressing the greens with sand and working it into all the verticut channels really smoothing the greens, diluting thatch, and firming the greens.

The fairway expansions on 3 and 2 were aerated to help with all this rain as newly sodded area tend to hold water with all the thatch they come with from the sod farm. I did receive some complaints about the material that was applied to the greens on Thursday morning. I applied a granular gypsum product to the greens ahead of the rain which is an application that we apply monthly to the greens and approaches. Gypsum is a naturally mined product that provides calcium to the turf without changing the pH like lime would do. Calcium is essential is flocculating the soil(natural aeration) and displacing the sodium found in our irrigation water. The granules were sticking to the golf balls as only a small amount of rain fell instead of the predicted downpour. The gypsum will be irrigated in as to avoid any other ball roll implications.

This weekend is not only Father's Day but its also the US Open being held at Pinehurst. I had a great early Father's Day present with my daughter coming to visit at MGC on Wednesday. Bryn was very excited to learn about the stimpmeter and the ball washer. I encourage you to watch the US Open and see the major changes to the golf course. I am not sure the no rough and wire grass waste areas it will catch on like the telecasters are predicting but it sure is fun to watch.

Learning about the Stimpmeter

18th Hole at Pinehurst for US Open