2016 Spring Aeration Recap

Four weeks ago to the day, we began our 2016 spring aeration. Although we are really pleased with the recovery, we are still 10 days from being fully healed. The combination of an aggressive process and cool/cold nights has kept the grass from jumping. We could push it a bit with more fertility, but we want the plant to "wake" up on its own and deliver energy where it is best suited. In other words, we want any carb production to be stored or used for rooting. At any rate, the healing process is always slower than we want, but given the circumstances and timing of our aeration, we remain very excited about turf conditions for the balance of the spring and beyond. Outlined below is a recap of our 2016 spring aeration.

Greens 

1. Topdress greens at a rate of 1000#'s of sand per 1000 square feet
2. Deep tine greens on 1.5" centers to a depth of 7" with a 1/2" solid deep tine 
3. Solid tine aerated on a 1.5" center to a depth of 3" with a 5/8" solid tine
4. Core aerated on a 1.5" center to a depth of 2.5" with 1/4" hollow tine
5. Used a sweep and fill drag to brush in sand and break up cores
6. Removed cores from green
7. Rolled greens in 2 directions with DMI Speedrollers
8. Ran sweep and fill in 2 additional directions 
9. Rolled greens another time
10. Dry-jected greens with 30 tons of dried sand
11. Cleaned up sand remnants from dry-ject operation
12. Rolled greens for a 4th time 
13. Applied Potassium, Pro-Mag (Magnesium) and Limestone (Calcium) at respective rates of .75#K/1000, 5#'s/1000 and 10#'s/1000
14. Watered in sand and all products for 20 minutes
15. Allowed greens to sit for 2 days
16. Rolled and mowed one week from the start of the operation. 

*YTD, the greens have recieved .45#'s/N per 1000 square feet through soluable urea and amm. sulfate.*

Tees

1. Vertical mowed the tees at a depth of 3/8" on 1" centers 
2. Topdressed tees at a rate of 1000#'s of sand per 1000 square feet
3. Core aerated the tees on 2" centers to a depth of 3" with a 5/8" coring tine
4. Used sweep and fill to drag the sand and bust up the cores
5. Removed cores 
6. Rolled tees 
7. Applied gypsum at a rate of 15#'s per 1000 square feet 
8. Applied 20-0-8, 150 SGN Fertilizer with Dimension - .25#ai/A 
9. Watered in products and sand
10. Allowed 10 days to pass prior to first mowing 

*During the off-season, the tees were vertically mowed in 2 directions and deep tined 2x.* 

Fairways, Approaches and Intermediates 

1. Topdressed fairways at a rate of 1000#'s of sand per 1000 square feet. (27 truckloads) 
2. Core aerated the fairways on 2" centers to a depth of 3" with a 5/8" coring tine
3. Used sweep and fill to drag the sand and bust up the cores
4. Used two turbine blowers to blow cores towards the center of the fairway. 
5. Removed cores with 2 - Toro Pro-Sweeps and 1 Super 600
6. Re-drug fairways with sweep and fill machines 
7. Applied gypsum at a rate of 15#'s per 1000 square feet 
8. Drug in gypsum with a core buster drag mat 
9. Watered in products and sand. 
10. Allowed 10 days to pass prior to first mowing 

*During the off-season, the fairways were vertically mowed and deep tined 2x.* 

Winter Projects Update - Final Blog Post

Our Winter Projects began in mid-January and as of today (aside from some growing-in and punch list items) we are finished and ready to focus on day to day maintenance. Although our blog will remain active throughout the year (aeration recap next week) our winter project updates will conclude with this post. In this post, I have gone back to previous blogs and dug up some "before" photos and placed them above "finished" photos. We hope you enjoy the tour and thanks to all of our members for having such great patience as we worked through the last two and a half months. 

3rd Tee Complex - Cleared to Grassed 

6th Tee Complex - Dirt to Grass 

9th Fairway - Widened 

11th Tee Complex 

11th Fairway Expansion 

12th Fairway Bunker Placement 

16th Hillside - Re-grassed

18th Stream Restoration