I guess we are rounding the corner into fall. School is starting next week and so too does our fall aerification (even though it is summer)!
The schedule and technique is similar to prior years, but we will be utilizing our new toy-a larger beast of an aerator. It should be more reliable and productive minimizing the time it takes to get this critical process done. Cleanup of plugs still requires dry weather to facilitate the breaking and blowing of cores, but we hope to be able to get out of your way as quickly as possible.
August 12-16 Fairways with our normal 5/8" coring tine. We do 2-4 holes per day.
August 27-28 Greens surrounds with same 5/8" tine. Front nine one day back the next. If you play later in the day you can avoid most of this "mess".
August 6-7 Tees
October 15-16 Greens with solid mini-tine so not much disruption.
We try to do as little as possible to greens during prime golfing season thus our early and late greens aerification dates. We hope we can continue that and still accomplish what we need for the turf and still give good conditions during peak season.
#12 @ Wild Horse
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Friday, August 3, 2018
Oh much too long
Nope not talking about the wooga (although it is) but about the time since last blog post. I apologize for not being more diligent about getting a post written.
Thanks to those who have attended the course tours this year. We keep hoping for more attendees but we are starting to gain a few more followers. Attendees have responded favorably to these sessions so hopefully these tours are educating and informing. Last month’s topic was greens management from A to Z. We even divulged a couple of our top secret maintenance practices! And broke out the stimpmeter for some fun. Hopefully you can make it to our next tour sometime in August.
Some topics from previous tours included aerification techniques and their necessity, a look at some ice damage (seems like long ago), our greens construction here at Wild Horse, wooga management, irrigation and mowing schedules, and a look at some of our hole design intent. So you can see we cover all kinds of topics in an hour.
One question we received was about our mowing heights on fairways. We cut our fairways at 7/16" just below 1/2" which is what I would consider a standard height of cut on fairways. People often comment on the "tightness" of our fairways. This is probably more a product of our management rather than height of cut. Lean ferility, judicious irrigation (not overwatering), and a good quality of cut is what keeps our fairways tight. For some people the small amount of grass under the ball is intimidating but in our opinion is the best way to manage a linksy, bouncy golf course.
The course is really looking good this late in summer. We had a stretch where we had several irrigation issues and the course got a little too dry. Cart tracks and severe browning occurred on hills. We like to keep it dry but that stretch was too hot and too long between irrigation cycles. We got through it and the course revovered nicely with a welcome rain.
Hard to believe but aerification is just around the corner wih fairway aerification starting August 12. We will post the fentire schedule in a future post so you can plan accordingly. We will be using a new aerator this fall and are extremely excited to see its productivity in action.
Appreciate all of you who have travelled to see WIld Horse this summer and if you haven’t made it we hope to see you soon.
Thanks to those who have attended the course tours this year. We keep hoping for more attendees but we are starting to gain a few more followers. Attendees have responded favorably to these sessions so hopefully these tours are educating and informing. Last month’s topic was greens management from A to Z. We even divulged a couple of our top secret maintenance practices! And broke out the stimpmeter for some fun. Hopefully you can make it to our next tour sometime in August.
Some topics from previous tours included aerification techniques and their necessity, a look at some ice damage (seems like long ago), our greens construction here at Wild Horse, wooga management, irrigation and mowing schedules, and a look at some of our hole design intent. So you can see we cover all kinds of topics in an hour.
One question we received was about our mowing heights on fairways. We cut our fairways at 7/16" just below 1/2" which is what I would consider a standard height of cut on fairways. People often comment on the "tightness" of our fairways. This is probably more a product of our management rather than height of cut. Lean ferility, judicious irrigation (not overwatering), and a good quality of cut is what keeps our fairways tight. For some people the small amount of grass under the ball is intimidating but in our opinion is the best way to manage a linksy, bouncy golf course.
The course is really looking good this late in summer. We had a stretch where we had several irrigation issues and the course got a little too dry. Cart tracks and severe browning occurred on hills. We like to keep it dry but that stretch was too hot and too long between irrigation cycles. We got through it and the course revovered nicely with a welcome rain.
Hard to believe but aerification is just around the corner wih fairway aerification starting August 12. We will post the fentire schedule in a future post so you can plan accordingly. We will be using a new aerator this fall and are extremely excited to see its productivity in action.
Appreciate all of you who have travelled to see WIld Horse this summer and if you haven’t made it we hope to see you soon.
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