Fairway aerification is now finished

We have had awesome fall weather which has allowed us to complete aerification to the fairways. We will begin to aerate the roughs next week and that should be done sometime in December. We have also started taking down the pines along the cart path of hole 12. We will add some maples back to give it some color in the fall. We really need rain. To date only 41" has fallen since January . Last year we had 100", and we average 80" a year. Lots of wildfires in the area.

Smoke from the fires that are burning at tallulah river area, seen from 246 overlook

Fall greens aerification

HGreens were aerated last week using a 3/8" tine on 2x2 hole spacing. They were also topdressed and fertilized. We have also completed 9 hole on fairways. Having dry weather does has it's benefits to aerification, but we sure do need rain. Lots of fires in the area.

Drone flyover pics

I had a friend fly his drone over the front nine a few weeks back, I love seeing the course from above.

Driving range 

Holes 6-8

Back nine

Holes 1,2

Range aerification

We closed the range today to aerify the greens and approaches. One of the practice tees was also finished. Tomorrow we will graden verticut the greens and inter seed some bent grass in the weaker areas. Next week we will start on the tees on the course, followed by a fairway or two. It's that time of year, cooler nights, shorter days , got to get it done before old man winter sets in.

Sunrise

I'm still amazed by the sunrise and sunsets we get here.

Seeding of fairways

We spent most of Thursday and Friday seeding L-93 bent grass seed into the worst areas. We took the verticuter out first and disrupted the fairways giving the seed a place to sit. Topdressing sand was then applied to these areas. For the next 2 weeks, you will see us irrigating throughout the day to keep these areas wet. Please be careful and try not to drive your cart in the seeded areas.

Bad areas on fairways

What a summer. Hot and dry and very little rainfall. Then it rained, all at once. 7" in one week with no sun to dry the course. What we were left with was a few areas on some fairways that lost some grass. So what are we going to do. First we are going to aerate it, then verticut it, seed it, fertilize it and topdress and give her a whole lotta love. Then hopefully in 2 weeks we will see some seedlings starting to pop. We will treat these spots as a grow in, so we will have to restrict cart traffic while we grow this in. With the cooler nights in the 50's, most of the stressed turf will recover. Please be careful in these areas as we try to improve the turf.

Night spray

Occasionally we apply products that have to be watered in to the soil. Spraying first thing in the morning doesn't allow me to get the required amount of water needed to push this product into the soil. With golfers starting at 7:30, there would be a good chance of them getting wet, so it makes since to spray at night. We installed LED lights to the sprayer making it much easier to see. While I was spraying greens, I noticed a pair of bats mating.

Cool pics

11 green

Big plans for this area behind the 11th green. Stay tuned for more pics.

Brush cutting

We have begun the process of cutting down all the vegetation around creeks and lakes. This will take us till October to complete the areas around the golf course.

A couple of cool pix

These were taken last week by Davis Wilson. Just one of the benefits of working early mornings on a golf course.

Rattlesnake

Got this 5 footer today by the trash compactor. It had 9 buttons on it. The yellow jackets and snakes are bad this time of year. It's a jungle out there folks, be careful!

Sunrise

This mornings sunrise

Cart path repair

 The wash out on 12 has finally been repaired as well as some damage to 1 and 10. The rock wall that was fixed on 12 is really nice, too bad you can't see it from the golf course.