5.1.25 Regrassing Project Update

Here’s a quick rundown of the timeline of where we are at with our regrassing project: 

April 8th - Rees Jones Group was on property.  Assisted us in making changes to some existing mow lines and marked areas for elimination spray. 

April 14th - Sprayed holes 10 - 18 

April 16th - Sprayed practice greens, holes 1- 9 

April 21st to now - Applied Fertilizer, mowed, and watered to encourage growth and green up for grass that has been sprayed 

UPCOMING

May 5th - Second application for elimination spray

May 12th - Golf Course is shut down, Construction contractor arrives on property 

So far, so good, in my opinion with hitting our checkmarks and following our plan for the project. The biggest thing in our favor so far has been the weather cooperating.  It was dry when we needed it to be during the spray out and we got some timely rains after we applied the last round of fertilizer.  

Let's dive into some of the highlights from what we’ve experienced so far:

GREENS SAND COMPATABILITY

A critical component of our plans for greens is making sure that the new sand we add to the existing greens sand mix is compatible and will “bridge” correctly.  As I mentioned in my last post, the main issue with why our greens weren’t able to perform how we wanted in the past was due to quality of the top 4” of soil beneath our grass on our greens.  Roots had issues penetrating this layer, it was high in organic matter, and no matter our efforts to amend it, we couldn’t do enough to make it work.  

To test compatibility, we dug down on our putting greens (Jake can be seen above on #8 doing this) to get past the material we are removing, and we scooped out the good sand material that we are leaving during the project.  We filled up a bucket and sent it to a soil testing lab.  

The lab has our sand from our greens and a few of the potential sand matches we have sourced and are potentially going to use for the project. The lab will test the existing sand and new sands for compatibility.  Our goal is to pick the one that best fits our needs.

Update as of 4/29/25, we found a compatible match and the lab confirmed that the sample we sent them from our putting green is a good match for the sand source we are planning on using for the project. 

SPRAY OUT 

Our first application of herbicide took place on April 14th, we skipped a day, and completed the spray on April 16th.  It took us about 12 hours total to spray out the grass that we are eliminating using a combination of our 300 gallon sprayer and 3 gallon backpack sprayers. 

Accuracy and attention to detail was of the utmost importance because any mistake would lead to issues.  Our goal was to eliminate just the turf on fairways, approaches, collars, greens and some surrounds.  

To avoid tracking the herbicide to areas we didn’t want, we bought a 100’ x 10’ plastic tarp that we would lay down, connecting the cart path to the fairway.  This allowed us to drive over the rough without getting any chemical on this grass we wanted to protect.  

The backpack sprayer applicators also had to be mindful of where they stepped because if they walked into the application area, they would be tracking the herbicide with their shoes.  To avoid this, the applications would start at the furthest point and walk backwards, away from where they sprayed.

Once the herbicide was on the plant, we had to allow it to do its work and get absorbed into the plant tissue.  That meant no mowing or rolling on any of this grass for the next 7 days to allow for maximum efficacy of the spray. We also had to be careful in the mornings after dew formed overnight.  This is why we stayed on cart paths until the dew burned off the following two mornings as we didn’t want cart tires to track the herbicide while the grass was wet with dew.

After the 48 hour window of the chemical being on the plant, the product was now inside the tissue and didn’t pose a threat of being moved around, allowing us to resume normal cart use in the mornings. 

Just a few days later you can start to see effect of the spray: 

As the turf continued to absorb and translocate the herbicide, it was important to try and trick the plant into growing again.  We did this by fertilizing heavy, watering, and mowing the grass.  All these practices promote new plant growth and keeps the grass in the “active” growing stage.  This helps us eliminate it further as it will continue to push the herbicide deeper down into the rhizomes and roots.

This upcoming Monday, we'll make our second application of herbicide using the same process as we did back in April. Due to some incoming weather on Tuesday, we are going to spray out the whole course on Monday, as opposed to splitting it up between two separate days. It's critical that the application goes out when it's dry to allow the plant the opportunity to absorb as much of the herbicide as possible. Precipitation can knock the chemical off the grass and not allow it to do it's job.

We'll be cart path only in the mornings on Tuesday & Wednesday until the dew burns off the reduce the chances of tracking the herbicide with the cart tires.

Once the contractor is on property May 12th, I'll start breaking down the timeline and schedule of events as they unfold on the course as we get prepped to get our new grass installed.

Thanks for being a Member.

-Willie Hoppe, Director of Agronomy