At the end of last week I thought I would be writing this post to pacify the mass of angry golfers that wanted to hang me from the flag pole for ruining their greens. Surprisingly I don’t feel that I have to mention it at all. In fact, I would be surprised if anyone could tell that we had done anything to them at all.
Unfortunately this does not mean that the greens are rolling beautifully. The heavy, persistent rain delayed our follow up maintenance and has released nutrients that were stored in the soil. We finally mowed the greens on Thursday and mowed and rolled today. The turf is very lush preventing us from dropping our cutting height back to its original setting (we’re still only 0.005” or 4% above normal). I made two applications to the greens that should improve the firmness and speed of the greens over the weekend.
A few people have commented about how much they like the less aggressive approach we took with respect to aerating the greens this spring. It is my goal to continue with this approach as long as the turf remains healthy and the weather cooperates. In order to achieve our goals using this strategy, we must complete our cultural practices more often. We will try to use Mondays to get this work done, which means that there will be some weeks where the greens are much slower on Monday than they were the previous weekend due to verticutting, topdressing, spiking/venting, or a variety of other practices we employ to improve the health and condition of the greens. We appreciate your patience and support as we fine tune these programs to minimize the impact of these practices and maximize the number of days that the course is in pristine playing condition.
Considering the weather we had this week I am very pleased with condition and appearance of the golf course. I attribute this to the hard work and dedication of the crew. In spite of the persistent rain the guys remained focused and were able to get all of the routine maintenance completed in addition to the aeration and topdressing.
Thank you for checking in and we look forward to seeing you out on the golf course.
