I was scrolling through my blog last week and noticed
that it’s been over 6 months since my last post. I can't believe how quickly the year has passed and that the blog
has been neglected for so long. Luckily there has been a lot going on at the
Rock in 2017 so there will be no worries about writers block for a while!
So far, 2017 has been off to a busy start. The last of the
projects were recently finished up (just in time for the first heat wave of the
year!). Since my last post, these projects were completed:
- The barn work was finished along with the new chemical/fertilizer mix tank.
- Over 100 trees removed and those area were sodded.
- Three bunkers were rebuilt and some of the fairway lines were adjusted.
- Steps were added to the cart barn entrance.
- The decking on some of the bridges has been replaced.
No update is complete without discussing the weather! Mother
Nature has thrown us a curve ball this year with a lot of
abnormal weather.
Overall, January through the middle of March was unseasonably warm.
The course remained open so there was more play than normal. Since the turf
isn't growing over the winter, play can cause damage to the course as the turf
can't recover; however there was minimal damage. The plan was to start work in
earnest on the projects once
the maintenance staff started back, only for the course to get hit with an end-of-season snow storm. Luckily there wasn't as much snow as expected, but the
foot that did fall delayed work on the course. This backed up the project schedule, which then snowballed with rain and play related delays. The goal was to have
everything done by June 1, so even considering the delays they were only a few
days late getting finished up.
There was a spell of nice weather right around the time the course was
aerated. Over the last few years the opposite happened and the greens took a
long time to recover. This year they initially recovered quickly but, when
the colder than normal weather returned, they just sat for a period until
the soil temperatures recovered to sustain growth. The benefit of the grass not
growing was that it didn't need to be mowed, which in turn freed up staff to
help get the projects finished up! Once the soil temps rose, the greens quickly
finished healing. With the weather (mostly) cooperating, the spring aeration
went really well with quicker recovery than was observed the last few
years.
Rooting in the greens was ahead of
schedule with the warm spring weather. Unfortunately, the cooler, wet weather (which bentgrass doesn't like) in the later spring saw some of the roots retract. The growth over the last month has seen them recover once again and they are really healthy going into the summer.
The TurfGuard sensor graphs above and below show the
four-week period after aeration throughout the 2016 and 2017
springs.
The Driving Range tee also fell foul of the cooler temps. The grow-in of the tee
rebuilding project went well as the tees were covered over the winter. This resulted in good germination and
growth. Once the temperatures rose in April the covers were removed as the temperature and humidity under them increased, which, in turn, would damage the grass. When the temps dropped again
the turf growth slowed and the tee didn't grow much until the soil temps rose
again. It was also a cloudy period overall, which bentgrass doesn't like. Just
like with the aeration recovery, once the soil temperatures rose back to
optimum levels and the sunshine returned the tee filled in and was opened for
play on the 14th.
The range tee after the covers were removed.
The germination under the covers over the winter provided a good head start for the spring. The removal of the covers so the tees could be consistently maintained coincided with the period when temperatures decreased. This slowed the grow-in down. The Learning Center was being painted during this time, which prevented the driving range tees from being irrigated for a week and slowed the grow-in down a little.
The new tees.
The surfaces are a lot
firmer since there is no thatch, which was an issue with the old ones. The two
tees are now connected with a contoured area to better replicate uneven lies and
the new practice bunker (to the right of the tee in the pic above) was designed to
provide different shot types.
Over the next few weeks, I will cover more of the work that was done in the recent months. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know: alan@ledgerockgolf.com. I hope to see you soon!
