Another beautiful morning at LedgeRock!! However it is hard to believe we had another frost delay this morning, the fourth this week!! Thankfully it is not too much of an issue now that the daytime temperatures are increasing and overall the last few days have been beautiful.
The greens are still quietly progressing, even considering the frosts, and are very close in being back to normal - with today being the first day we were able to lower the height. They are scheduled to be lowered again tomorrow. Depending on how they look, they will be lowered from there and should be close or back to normal height by Thursdays Member - Guest.
This chart was included in our weather report this week. It shows that March and April have been the second coldest in recorded weather history, so it is not in our heads!!
Now that the turf is starting to grow more vigorously, the mowing schedule has started to increase and, from Monday, we will finally be back on a regular maintenance schedule. The sprayers will also be really busy for the next few weeks as they need to get a number of early season applications out that set the course up for the season. Amongst them will be crabgrass & white grub prevention, wetting agents to help the soils retain water when the dry weather comes and of course regular fungicide, weed and fertilizer applications as needed. The fescues are on the list of areas to be sprayed also, to ensure they remain weed free. This year I plan to mow them more throughout the year so they remain more playable and by some landing areas will mow them at rough height to help playability as we did last fall.
This week also saw the last of our projects getting finished up. We added an extension to 17 fairway. Last year we moved the tees forward to help drives get nearer the end of the fairway, hopefully leaving players with an easier shot to the green. A number of balls were landing in the right rough, which resulted in tough side hill shot. The extension will help balls bounce down from the hill so as not to penalize a slightly errant shot but enough rough remains to penalize a bad shot. The area had been mowed lower last year to make sure it would work as planned and since it has, it was decided to convert it fully to bentgrass.
This picture shows the outline of the area that was extended. Although from this angle it does not look like a lot, it does add meaningful room for longer drives.
The cut line from the tee
Sod removed
Prepping the area and starting to sod. Yes!! that is our loader on the fairway!! The tracks on it have very low ground pressure which makes it a very useful tool at delivering big items in areas like this.
Almost finished
Job done!! Since the hill is steep, the sod is bumpy right now from us having to walk on it during the project to water etc. Once it starts rooting it will be rolled and topdressed and it will match fully to the rest of the fairway. It should be fully playable in 3-4 weeks.
On a side note, while hand watering the sod from the sprinkler this morning the foot valve stuck, leaving the fairway flooded by the time we could get it valved off..... This was the river I was greeted to at 8am today!! The head is fixed and everything is back to normal, except the end of the fairway is saturated so it had to be staked off from cart traffic for today. Hopefully it dries out enough to be opened up again tomorrow.
Best of wishes to Nate Menon today on his Golf-a-Thon. He played though while we were working on the irrigation on 17. I have to say I was more than impressed with his drive from the forward tees - this is a picture of him getting ready for his second shot - who said 17 is a tough hole!!
The other project finalized this week is the back pond on 10. As planned, the bank along the path was sodded to match the green side bank. The sod here is a little bumpy also but don't worry we were not sloppy!! I want to see if the daffodils, bluebells etc that grow there will grow through the sod like they do along the creek. As such, I didn't want to disturb the soil much on the bank to ensure the bulbs stayed as intact as possible so that next spring when the turf is still dormant they might be able to pop though. Now that the sod is down it is easier see the bigger bumps, so this week we can fix them and then, once the sod knits, it can be rolled smooth.
As always if you have any questions let me know
