Shade Issues

The sun reaches its highest point in the winter months at noon, which is the same position the sun is in at 9 am and 5 pm during the summer months.  So, the sun never reaches its highest point in the winter months.  Pine trees on the course are restricting sunlight to certain areas.  We already know that shade hinders the performance of Bermuda grass.  Bermuda grass needs six hours of sunlight each day to withstand extreme conditions.  In addition to shade, compaction raises other issues in these same areas.The pictures below show the areas that are not receiving sunlight and affected by compaction (foot traffic, greens mowers, cart traffic, etc.). 

 









 Number 3 Green at 12:32 P.M.

Number 8 Green at 12:35 P.M.

Number 17 Green at 12:03 P.M.

Number 2 Fairway, which is mainly a shade issue,
 at 12:52 P.M.


We have roped off  high traffic areas on a few holes and we are hoping this will alleviate some of our problems when the Bermuda grass comes out of dormancy.

Number 4 Cart Path

Number 9 Cart Path


Stay tuned for next month's blog.  We will be repairing green side bunkers on Numbers 18, 3 and 9.  We will be installing bunker fabric with a new type of bunker sand.

Drainage Basins

Over the past 10 years, thatch has built up on our fairways. Since it is not economically feasible for us to regularly aerify and topdress our fairways, the thatch has made our drainage basins to appear sunken or collapsed. We have started raising drainage basins on some of our fairways that were needed the most. I am mainly focusing my attention on fairways #1, #4, #9 and #14. We have started on fairway #9 and below are the steps that we took:

1) Obviously we cut out the sod around the drain

2) Dig the gravel and dirt out around the drain

3) Add a 12 inch coupling to the pipe

4) Cut a new 12 inch pipe so that is flush with the fairway


5) Drill two holes into the top of the pipe so that we can screw the metal drain onto the pipe

6) Add gravel and sand so that the drain will facilitate quicker drainage

7) Add the sod to the sand layer and pack it down

Vandalism

Saturday morning ,October 15, before the Heritage Cup, I received a phone call about number 15 green. When I came up to number 15, I noticed that someone had spun donuts on the green.

We fixed the damage to the best of our ability so that we could get through the tournament. Since then we have aerified, top-dressed and fertilized this green several times with the hope that it will grow back in before the winter. Unfortunately, I believe that it will take until the end of April or beginning of May before the green fully recovers.