The Final Three Summer Interns Are Here

The remaining three summer interns have been with us for about a month now, here is some information on each of them:

Matt Wolfe comes to us from Attica, Indiana and is currently a junior studying Turf Science at Purdue University. Matt has worked on his hometown course for the past three seasons, Harrision Hills Golf and Country Club in Indiana. Matt learned of the internship at Kinloch from one of his professors and after viewing the website, he knew it is where he wanted to be. In his free time, Matt enjoys playing golf and anything related to being outdoors. Matt is looking forward to broaden his horizons while here and expericing the daily practices of a high end private operation.

Max Bloomquist is from Fruitland, Iowa. Max has already recieved his Associates degree in Golf and Athletic Turf Managment from Kirkwood Community College in Iowa and is now pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Horticulture from Iowa State University. Max began to develop his passion for turf while working on a home lawn care crew for two summers before working a Geneva Golf and Country Club the past two summers. Max enjoys playing golf, hunting and spending time with his family and friends during his free time. He is looking forward to gaining experience with cool season turf species this far south and learning what it takes to maintain tournament conditions on a daily basis as well as the preparations involved with hosting the Senior Amateur.

Nick Dunlap our final intern, comes to us from Iowa City, Iowa. Nick has already recieved his Bachelor of Science in Horticulture from Iowa State and is preparing to go back this Fall to work on his Masters in Turfgrass Science from Iowa State. Nick's past experience includes working at Quail Creek Country Club in Iowa, serving as a research assistant at Iowa State conducting research on Corn Gluten Meal and was a summer intern at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Northern Virginia this past summer. Nick loves working on cars and has already restored a 1980 chevy camaro. He is looking to become more rounded during his time here at Kinloch by experiencing different management philosopies, a different climate compared to the midwest and ultimately sees himself relocating to the Mid-Atlantic region.

Cottage Putting Green Update

Today is exactly one month from seeding on the cottage putting green. Here are a few pictures to show its progress.

Our First Intern Is Here

The Kinloch Maintenance staff is proud to introduce the newest member to our staff for the upcoming season. Ajay Malhotra comes to us from the CAEP global internship program as a summer intern. Ajay is from New Delhi, India and is extremely excited about coming to the states to learn the American style of turf management practices and experience the culture and social lifestyle of Americans.

Ajay began his career working at Eagleton Golf Resort in the southern region of India, which is currently ranked the second best course in the country. He received his bachelors of science from Agra University in Agra, India and became the first ever turfgrass student from India after successfully completing his National certificate in greenkeeping from Elmwood college in St. Andrews, Scotland. He is also the only Indian who was awarded scholarship by ‘’R&A’’ for studying greenkeeping. While in Scotland, Ajay was fortunate enough to have an internship at the Old Course on St. Andrews, including the experience of the 2010 British Open Championship. Since completing the R&A program, Ajay signed up through CAEP which located him here with us at Kinloch. In his free time, Ajay enjoys watching golf on TV, playing golf when he can, running and visiting his family and friends that are here in the United States, in the Washington, DC area.

The remaining three interns will be here the first of May, so check back for a bio on those individuals.

Cottage Putting Green Update

Here are a few photos on the progress of the cottage putting green grow-in, three weeks after seeding.

Cottage Green Germination

After two cold weeks, we now have germination on our new putting green located near the cottages. Once the finish grading was complete on the green surface, the surface was divided into six different quadrants of bentgrass. This will serve as an excellent opportunity for us to monitor the advances of these new varieties in comparison with the existing L-93 on the golf course. This comparison will allow us to evaluate which varieties may be more heat tolerant, disease tolerant and drought tolerant for future projects. The six different blends were as follows: Tyee, T1/Alpha, Tyee/Mckenzie, T1, 007 and V-8.

Once seeding was completed, the seed was raked-in and tracked with a sand-pro to ensure good seed to soil contact. The knobby tires on this machine also produce dimples and pockets to help with water holding in the early stages of establishment.

Two weeks later, we now have a green glaze across the putting surface.

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Another spring aerification is complete

It was a cold, dreary last few days, but we can officially call our spring aerification complete. The process started on Sunday at 11:00 am after a lengthy frost delay. First we deep tined greens, followed by removing 3/8 inch cores with our walk behind aerifiers.

On Monday morning, again after a lengthy frost delay, we finished up the remaining greens and Mid-Atlantic Dryject Company started the process of dryjecting the greens. This process was outlined in last week’s blog, in which a machine provides the cultural benefit of creating additional aeration holes while filling them with sand at the same time. This practice took all day, with only the completion of #14 spilling over into Tuesday. Employees were stationed at each green using buckets to fill dry sand into the machine every pass.

Once greens were finished, the process of coring tees and approaches started. As of today we have aerified all approaches and most of tees with the exception of a few on the front due to rain storms.

On Monday afternoon, we started topdressing greens, and completed the process on Tuesday. Following topdressing, greens were push broomed to work the sand into the holes. A one ton asphalt roller was used to roll any ruts out that were created from all of the traffic from equipment on the greens during the entire week.

To round out the week on Wednesday and Thursday, we did our bulk gypsum application on tees, fairways and rough. We also finished aerifying the rough using pull behinds spoon aerifiers. Greens and tees were amended with gypsum, pro-mag and a balanced fertilizer to help with recovery. Finally, everything from benches to flagsticks were put back in place for the return of play of Friday.

All in All, with the exception of Mother Nature trying to throw a wrinkle in the game plan, it was yet again another successful Aerification. A special thanks goes out to the entire staff, who put in countless hours over the past week to make it all happen!

Aerification Is Next Week!!!

With aerification coming next week I found this great video explaining in detail the importance of aerification to golf course greens in particular. This process holds true for all of the playing surfaces, but is most critical for maintaining healthy greens. I hope you can take the time to watch the entire video.



We are mixing the aerification process up this year by poking a month earlier than the traditional final week of April. This year’s aerification timing is a test and we hope the soil temperatures will aid in a speedy recovery. This change will allow more healing time for the greens before our annual Member Invitational and will prevent having to close the golf course for a week in the peak of spring. This spring we will be aerifying greens, rough and deep tining fairways. We have been working on the tees and approaches during the winter months to help firm up all surfaces and take advantage of the topdressing that we continue to spread on our bentgrass fairways. Over the course of the past eleven seasons, our aggressive topdressing program has continued to firm up our fairways and aid in drainage in these heavy clay soils.

We will yet again, contract out the cultural practice of dryjecting our greens. Dryjecting is an innovative way to use a high-pressure, water-based injection system that blasts aeration holes through the root zone to fracture the soil, while the patented vacuum technology simultaneously fills holes with amendments. This process in combination with traditional core aerification will continue to relieve compaction, increase water infiltration, reach the root zone with oxygen and amend our soil profile all at the same time. This will help us create a healthy root zone to prepare us for the summer months and tournament style playability on the greens.

The weather forecast looks great, and we will work diligently to ensure a speedy recovery on all playing surfaces.

The Cottage Putting Green is ready for seed and sod!!!!

Construction of the Cottage area putting green wrapped up over the weekend. This green will add another great place for members and guests to fine tune their game. There probably won’t be any late night wagering going on once this green opens!!

The process of staking the green’s outer edge

Shaping begins

Filling the cavity with sand

Floating out the finished product

Stay tuned for a timeline of photos once the green is seeded in the next couple of days!

Winter Projects Are Wrapping Up!!

The golf course is starting to green up and all of our winter projects are coming to a close. The next series of posts will help bring everyone up to speed on our improvements throughout the winter.

14 Tee Expansion

We finished up the much needed expansion of the teeing surfaces on number 14 at the end of January. As you can see from the above photo, previously the narrow tee boxes caused for divot laced areas in our most used sections of the tees. The old complex had just two tees, in which the back tee played host to the black and gold markers, and the forward tee had the remaining three sets.

The new complex has created three separate surfaces. The back tee is a touch larger in width, the middle tee is almost double the previous width and the forward tees will now be separated up front. This additional space will aid in divot recovery and options for tee placement throughout the season.

13 Tee Walk

Last week, we completed our project on the thirteenth hole to help aid the walk between the blue and white tees when traveling to the fairway. For weeks, loads of dirt were hauled to the section to subtle out the severity of the walk between the two tees.

Before:

After:

Stay tuned, as we will be updating our blog in the upcoming days.