Champ Course Fairways and Tees after 1st Roundup/Fusilade application.

 

 

As you can see the contrast is becoming quite distinct as the targeted areas of turf are beginning to slowly transition in preparation for the conversion to Celebration Bermudagrass. Playing conditions right now are quite fun with the extensive ball roll you will receive on the fairways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see the collars are transitioning as well but the greens are in championship condition and rolling at tournament speeds.

 





Topdressing the Squire Course Greens

Day 1 of Aerification on the Palmer Greens

 

 

As you can see here we are using our deep tine machine with 3/4" tines that go 6" deep to give us a lot more compaction relief than the average aerifier.

 

 



 

 

Here is the deep tine aerifier in action pulling cores and bringing the soil with heavy organics up to the surface so we can remove and fill the holes with straight USGA spec sand to improve air and water flow in the soil profile.

 

 

 

 

 



First Roundup/Fusilade application on the Champ course

Here you can see Jeff Visser spraying our Roundup & Fusliade mix to the fairways.

Here the team is using a sprayhawk hand sprayer with barricades to ensure no Roundup/Fusilade gets on to the greens and damages that turf.

Here you can see the blue dye outline after the sprayhawk application of the roundup/fusillade mix.


Tuesday was the end of the overseeding era on the Champ course fairways, tees and approaches and also the beginning of our Celebration regressing project.
This step entailed a spray application to all the areas to be regressed with Celebration bermudagrass. The next step will be an application of 21-0-0 fertilizer late next week which will encourage growth of the plant. this accomplishes two things, as the plant grows it translocates the herbicide and metabolizes it and this also helps whatever plants that we did not get a good kill on green up and be ready for the next Roundup/Fusilade application.

Cart Path Only Today

All courses on property will be cart path only today.  We received .72" of rain at the Golf Maintenance Facility last night and rain values range from . 72" - 1.25" across all the courses.  

Practice run for the Roundup application on the Champ Course next week.

The team is doing a practice run with the barrier we created to keep Roundup off our greens next week when we do our first application to the Tees, Fairways and Greens Surrounds in preparation for our regressing to Celebration this summer.

Please note the course is closed in the late afternoon next Monday and all day Tuesday for the Roundup and Fusilade application. Both of these products are no-selective herbicides that will begin to kill the existing turf.

Spraying Growth Regulator on the Estates Fairways

Mike Knewitz is spraying Primo (growth regulator) on the Estates course fairways to promote lateral growth which will give a denser turf canopy and healthier turf as we head into the growing season.

Aloft application on the Estates

Here is Mike Knewitz spraying Aloft insecticide which gives us 3-6 month control of Mole Crickets which can do a lot of damage to turf by feeding on roots and burrowing tunnels.

Needle tine on the Squire greens

Needle Tine Aerification to Champ course greens

Here you can see the Aerifier going across a green on the Champ course.

Here you can see the spacing between the needle tine holes.

Lastly this shows the holes left behind by the needle tines. As you can see the holes are barely visible and once we run the speed roller over them they do not affect putting. The needle tines themselves are the same size as a #2 pencil. this process is critical Oct-May as we do not do any core aerification so this allows us to reduce compaction from all of the rolling and gives a small pocket into the soil profile for oxygen exchange which is critical for turf health.

4" main line irrigation break on Squire Course hole #13

As you can see we had a major irrigation line break on #13 of the Squire last night. An extremely large area of the fairway/approach to green was damaged and will take several days to repair.
This morning our crews are working hard to repair the pipe and get the area somewhat cleaned up.
it will though be roped off and marked ground under repair for the remainder of the weekend and we will have to do some excavating and bring in new sod starting Monday.

Light verticut and topdress on the Champ Greens this morning

Champ Course Superintendent Andrew Fike verticutting the main PG

As you can see a very light verticut this morning with very faint lines

After the verticut we applied a light topdressing to the greens as well.

As we all know as the growing season starts it is imperative to keep a routine schedule of light verticutting and topdressing of our Tif-Eagle greens to ensure they stay firm, roll true and keep the green speeds high.

Spraying Greens on the Squire Course this morning

This morning we are spraying our micro nutrient package on the Squire Greens with some growth regulator to help with turf health and increased greens speeds.

Tournament cleanup continues

Assistant Superintendent Jeff Visser hand watering new sod that we installed last week on #15 to repair areas damaged by this years tournament.
We will continue to repair the areas that need sod and agressivly fertilize other areas to ensure a timely recovery.