5.23 Update

The contractors made quick work removing all the grass from the putting greens, exposing the soil underneath. They used a combination of hand work and heavy equipment to accomplish this task.

A majority of the putting greens they were about to use their Scraper Attachment to rip up and pull off the grass.

Lots of hand work was involved during this part of the project. Contractors have to hand shovel all material from the edge of the greens to protect the integrity of the grass we are keeping.

Once they removed all the grass, their team started scouting the edge of putting green to find the existing Greens Liner. These Plastic Liners around 12" in width were installed when the greens were originally built. They wrapped the total boundary of the putting green on each hole and the thinking back in the day was that they would keep unwanted grasses / soil from coming into the greens.

Recently, construction and field evidence has shown that they actually do more harm than good. They trap water and limit gas exchange in the soil where they are installed, leading to weaker turf on the edges of the greens. All Greens Liners will be dug up and removed.

Bobby Holmes, owner of Golf Sculptors, was on property last week touring the course with myself, Justin, and his foreman. We rode each hole and identified how far out into the approach we would be laying sod. For example, everything to the left of the red line here on # 1 will be sodded all the way up to the green. Everything to the right will be grown in using the sod to spring machine.

Overall, we've been really impressed with Golf Sculptors so far. From their leadership, to planning, work ethic, and efficiency, they've displayed a high level of skill and ability.

Our teams main focus this week was prepping the fairways and approaches for their final herbicide application. We utilized our Spring Tooth Rake attachment to "standup" the bermuda grass in these areas to expose the green tissue underneath the dead canopy.

This tool did a great job of achieving this and will give us the ability to get our herbicide down to the green tissue that remains on the grass.

Here is a example of where the plant is still green and trying to grow. These plants are so so so resilient! Even after two aggressive chemical applications, bermuda grass still has enough energy stored up to try and generate new growth. It's truly remarkable (at least for us turf geeks).

After Spring Tooth Raking multiple directions and standing up as much bermuda grass as possible, we made our last herbicide application.

Bunker slopes were scalped down as low as we could go using weedeaters. This exposed the green tissue underneath the canopy, increasing the efficiency of our last application.

Golf sculptors also helped us add soil to the right of #13 greenside bunker where we had experienced serious erosion and turf loss. Our goal here is to continue our tree removal project and allow for enough sunlight to grow healthy turf.

We'll be adding additional soil by the fairway bunkers as well to amend that erosion. Additional drainage and irrigation work will be made here to ensure we can grow healthy grass.

Thanks for reading and being a member,

Willie Hoppe

Director of Agronomy, GCSAA Class A