6.18.26 Update

Our first summer aerification on our putting surfaces went as planned and we successfully achieved our goals of pulling 3/8th inch diameter cores from the greens. Removing this material from our putting surfaces allows us to create channels and holes to add sand into, which will help maintain firmness and the overall health of these areas.

To reduce the stress on the turf after pulling the cores out of the ground, we blew the cores off with backpack blowers. Typically we rent sweeper vacuum machines that you can drive on the grass and pick up the cores mechanically. Since we have greens that are still young in age, we opted for the more conservative approach.

Once the greens were cleaned off, we added sand using our topdressing machine. We will drive across the putting surfaces in multiple directions with this unit so that we can get a nice even coating.

We allow the sand to dry before we brush and roll the material into the canopy / holes. I love these larger rollers we have on property, especially when the greens are soft after aerification. Weighing around 1000lbs, these roller machines helps smooth out any imperfections on the putting surfaces.

On tee boxes, we pulled 5/8th inch cores. Same principles here, the goal being to remove organic material and thatch, then add sand to help firm up the teeing surfaces. We ran into some equipment challenges during aerifiction week and were not able to add sand as planned. We have the sand on property and we will begin to distribute it over the next couple of weeks.

The fairway topdressing of sand was contracted out to a third party. This crew was super efficient and made quick work of the project. They arrived on property Thursday and completed their job by Saturday morning. We put out over 350 tons of sand across our 35 acres of fairways.

They brought in two tractors and two large scale topdressing machines. You can see from the picture above from #13 fairway just how much sand was being deposited in a single pass. With some assistance from mother nature, much of the sand was worked into the canopies from rain fall over the last 3 days or so. Adding sand to our fairways helps maintain firmness and playability.

The Driving Range Tee was heavily topdressed as well. We've been aggressively fertilizing this area to try to encourage new growth and to promote additional recovery from all the play we get up here. The sand helped fill in voids and divot lines, plus protects the new grass that is beginning to establish.

Since we opened the range tee up on Saturday, we worked the sand into the canopy using one of our pull behind brushes to allow for better footing. The course was closed for an additional 3 days and we were expecting heavy rainfall so this process wasn't required for our fairways on the golf course. The water worked this material down and off of the surfaces.

We demoed a robotic mower for our clubhouse grounds while the property was closed to see what it could offer for the club. I loved the ease of setup, cut quality, and frequency of mowing this unit can achieve.

Not to mention the always perfectly straight lines!

We ground around 20 stumps while we were closed and are in the process of leveling these holes, picking up the material, and adding sod where necessary.

The bulkhead project wrapped up next to #17 tee box which allowed us to remove the heavy equipment that was still on property. The team from Texas Bulkhead laid plywood in front of the tracks of this giant excavator all the way from #17 back to the clubhouse parking lot. This process took around 7 hours to complete. Thanks again to Clifton and his team for all of their hard work. It looks fantastic!

We put down around 18,000 square feet of new sod when it was all said and done to reestablish turf in this part of the course. We set out temporary "kicker" sprinklers, ran irrigation, and hand watered the new grass to help it root down and establish.

I thought this video of the parking lot wrapped up aerification week perfectly. Sod trucks arriving, heavy machinery assembling, and dump trailers dropping off sand all in perfect harmony.

Thanks for reading and for being a member,

Willie Hoppe

Director of Agronomy Shadow Hawk Golf Club

GCSAA Class A