We are happy to have our two Invitational tournaments behind us, with the calendar now pointing us toward fall. There is a lot going on over the next few days, even while the course is closed. Aeration is upon us, and the maintenance team is grinding through the next couple of days to get everything done and headed in the right direction for recovery.
Here is what is going on and what you can expect.
Greens & Collars
Greens and collars have been heavily topdressed with 1 mm sand, then aerated with 3/4" solid tines and left to dry. It is imperative that the sand dries completely before the next steps can take place.
Once dry, the greens will be double-verticut, brushed to fill the aeration holes, blown, and rolled multiple times. They were fertilized Sunday morning before play to get the turf growing vigorously by midweek. The fertilizer and verticutting will help the turf grow through any excess sand and stimulate lateral growth to help everything fill in.
We will most likely roll the greens additional times this week in the afternoon after they have dried. Dew will make it nearly impossible to do much on the greens in the morning, as it causes the sand to move around. We want to keep as much of the applied sand in place as possible. Early rolling or mowing would remove sand and defeat the purpose of the process.
I doubt we will be able to mow the greens before next Monday, but one never knows.
The 7th green received a slightly different process. It was cored with 1/2" coring tines, dragged, and blown. It was then lightly topdressed to fill the remaining holes. This new green has some additional thatch due to the normal grow-in process. Using coring tines helps eliminate the development of a black layer and other future agronomic problems.
Tees
Tees are being cored with 5/8" coring tines. The plugs will be left to dry, then picked up and topdressed. Sand will be broomed in by hand, and the plugs will be utilized where possible.
Approaches
Approaches will also be cored with 5/8" coring tines and left to dry. Once dry, they will be dragged numerous times until the soil has been returned to the turf canopy. The remaining thatch will be cleaned up, and where possible, the approaches will be topdressed and brushed once dry.
Fairways
We will start picking away at the fairways over the next few weeks around play, as time permits. We will need a lot of water to help the turf recover from all of these holes, and we don't have a ton of water available at this point.
A couple of days of natural rain would be the magic elixir the course so badly needs.
What to Expect
Expect very slow and bumpy greens through the weekend. There will be dew on them in the morning, and they will be soft. THIS IS NOT THE BEST TIME TO BRING A GUEST.
Please fix your ball marks, because there will be a lot of them.
If things go as expected, the greens should begin to improve exponentially after their dry mow next Monday. A nice rain would be very helpful, but we all know what the chances of that are here in the desert.
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we put the course in the best possible position heading into fall.
