Fall is here and the course has seen the first frosts of the season. On October 9th, the first 10,000th round in a year was played! Thanks to the nice weather, the Club is well on the way to hit 11,000 rounds in 2015 - making it by far the busiest year since opening!
Fairway aeration starting on 1
Fairway core clean-up - the brushes on the sweepers beat up the turf causing it to bruise. Normally it can withstand the torture! However due to it being dry this year the turf bruised more than normal.
The bruising on the fairways from the sweepers and dry turf
3 fairway right after it was swept
3 fairway the following day. The irrigation prevented any more damage. The leaves turned brown but the crowns were healthy so all they needed to do was grow out.
13 Fairway right after it was cleaned up
13 again a few days later showing the speed of recovery
Unfortunately the wet fairways meant that the course conditions were not ideal for a few weeks. It was frustrating for the maintenance staff as we wanted the course to play better but had to ensure the long term health. As I discussed in this past post, watering isn't all that it seems and even though the turf is wet it can still need to be watered if the weather is hot and dry; with the turf under stress from aeration coupled with the heat, it will die if not given sufficient water. When the weather broke with 3.5" of rain right before the Berks County Senior Amateur, the turf was healthy for a great tournament set up even if it was still very wet from the precipitation. With the the turf fully recovered and healthy, coupled with dry weather, we were able to dry the course down; it was playing fantastically for the Rock and in the weeks since.
Normally carts are restricted or path only after a 1" storm but an exception was made after the 3.5" before the Berks County Senior Amateur. This is the damage carts do to wet turf - it was concentrated but shows why cart restrictions after a large rain event are necessary.
The usual troublesome greens had some issues again after aeration this year. There was minimal aeration performed on them and they looked great in the days after they were topdressed. Number 2 green was by far the worst and I believe a number things came into play. These pocketed greens suffer from lack of air movement and take an age to dry down. Last winter all the trees that prevented early morning sun were removed from around 2 green. Coupled with the fans providing air movement (and helping dry them) and better water management I believe the issues started before aeration when they had been possibly dried down a little too far.
They got a rest over aeration as they had not been mowed for a week and when when the mowing restarted, it coincided with the hottest period of the year. The turf there had adapted to it's growing environment (i.e. lack of sun, humid, wet); although it liked the better growing environment and thrived earlier in the year once the added stress of the heat and aeration came, they gave up, thinning out and taking a longer period to recover - a fact that was highlighted by how quickly the other greens recovered this year. By the Berks County Senior Amateur they were all putting consistently and were fully back up to speed the following week once they dried out from the storms.
2 green a week after it was aerated
Recovery was slow but within a few days it showed improvement
Within 10 more days it was nearly fully recovered and was ready to be brought back up to speed. It seemed like it had taken a lot longer at this time, mainly due to the fact the other greens healed exceptionally quickly and were fully back up to speed a week or so earlier.
So what does this mean for aeration next year? Now that we have corrected the issues around these greens they will do better each year - which was proved this year when they didn't show stress until early August when normally they would show signs of weakness in early June. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered when maintaining greens in less than ideal environments; changing even one of those factors results in it taking time to see what it effects and then adapting to what new issues crops up. Eventually a point is reached where everything is addressed and they perform as expected. While the pocketed greens still require slightly different management techniques to the 'open' greens, now that the major issues are corrected, the maintenance practices can be dialed in until they perform as they should. I am confident that they are close to being where they need to be and the plans for 2016 will be successful.
Since the Rock the crew have been busy around the course with some fairway extensions, building a bar and horse damage repair!
The fairway mowers had a difficult time making the turn at the beginning of 7 fairway leaving this tire mark that always needing fixing.
The edge of the fairway was modified to make it easier for the mowers to turn and eliminate the tire marks permanently.
6 fairway was widened by the approach. Balls would roll to the right rough and get caught at the interface between the rough and fairway. There were discussions about making that area bent grass but the architect said it would result in an even tougher shot. The solution was to make more room to the left which also gives more options to hit to the green.
Building a bar in the cart barn for Rocktoberfest!
The neighbors horses broke in and did damage to 17 and 2 greens. Luckily it looked a lot worse than it was.
It took a few hours pinching it back together and all was well again
As the growth slows down, maintenance slows too and last weekend was the point where the crew were laid off for the winter. Maintenance therefore will not be at the same levels as during the summer. Overall the course will play well but the detail stuff will be on hold until spring so bear with us! The height of cut on the greens will be raised to start pushing roots so the plant can build reserves before it shuts down for the winter, but green speeds should still remain 'sporty' for the rest of the year.
I also have to thank all the maintenance staff for their hard work and dedication this past season. For a multitude for reasons we ended up short- staffed most of the year and the crew really pulled together working overtime to fill in the gaps so the effect was minimized.
Sorry again for the length between updates but I promise the next update won't take as long!
As always let me know if you have any questions or comments; alan@ledgerockgolf.com
