Aerification 2018--A Week to Remember

Aerification week was last week as many of you know but it did not go as we had hoped.  The agronomy staff worked tirelessly on Monday and Tuesday to get the greens aerified and started on some the other projects due to the forecasted rainfall for Wednesday and Thursday.  It was a good thing we did because both of those days were a complete wash with the course receiving 3.41" of rain during that time.  It is hard to collect cores and spread sand in the rain, as we found out.  One last day, Friday, to get the course back together and the staff knocked it out of the park once again to get us open on time Saturday morning.

I know the word "aerification" is a four letter word for most all golfers but it is simply one of those necessary evils in the golf world.  The process removes old plant and thatch which have accumulated through time,  relieves compaction of the soil, provides new points for gas exchange between the root system and the atmosphere, letting the toxic gases out and fresh oxygen in, and allows for new materials such as sand or other amendments to be added to the soil system.   In a nutshell, you wouldn't dream of driving your car 100,000 miles without changing the oil and expecting it to survive.  We are simply changing the oil.

Most of the aerification process was the same this year as last but we did change a few techniques and add a couple of practices so  I thought a new video would help explain the process.

The agronomy staff put forth a Herculean effort last week to get everything done that we did.  The rain we received really messed up our scheduled activities but we made it through.  We did not get all the cultural practices we wanted done, such as core aerification of tees and topdressing of approaches, and will continue to work on the list over the next couple of weeks.  The greens are done and are healing in nicely so we look forward to welcoming everyone back out to enjoy the course.

Summer Aerification 2017

As you probably know the golf course was closed this past week so the agronomy staff could perform the necessary cultural practices on the course needed to have a high performing and well conditioned golf course.  We realize that this closure is not a desirable event to many golfers but it is vital to the long term playability of the course.  We have done our best to limit our cultural practices to this one week out of the year as to not impact your round and we thank you for your understanding and commitment to our course.

During summer closure week we try to accomplish as many tasks as possible to relieve the compaction and wear the course receives during the year as well as make improvements that we feel the course needs and will improve our guests experience.  Usually I try and post photos of the activities but this year the agronomy staff completed so many tasks in such a short time I thought you might like a video of the week.

So what did we accomplish this week??

Over 18 MILLION new holes were created in the putting greens relieving the compaction from the past year, removing a years worth of thatch growth, and providing channels for new, stronger plants and roots to develop.

4 acres of teeing surfaces were solid tine aerified

10 acres of tee and green surrounds were scalped down for better play

32 acres of fairways were sliced with our Aerway shattertine aerifier to improve fairway health.

Around 150 tons of sand were applied to the golf course turf including greens, tees, and greens surrounds to help firm up the playing surfaces, fill in aerification holes, and provide a smoother playing surface.

and many other smaller activities.

One of the improvements to the course that we hope you will quickly notice and enjoy is the lowering of the height of cut of the turfgrass directly surrounding the greens.  For years we have been maintaining this turfgrass close to 1/2" which resulted in balls getting caught on slopes and not running onto the greens surface or limiting the options golfers had to play their shot onto the green.  The turf surround the greens was scalped down to 1/4" and topdressed with sand to help firm up the turf and provide a smoother surface allowing the golf ball to hopefully roll onto the putting surface easier and also allow golfers the option to putt their ball from off the green if they choose which in the past would not have rally been an option.  We will continue to work these areas and improve them over the remainder of the year and we hope you find the new maintenance practice pleasing to your game.

Our golf course has made considerable improvements over the years and it is all due to the hard work and dedication of the agronomy staff.  I would be remise if I did not recognize and commend these individuals for their commitment to the betterment of Harrison Bay.  

Thank you to each member of our agronomy staff for making The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay all it can be, not only this week, but every week.

A Thousand Ways to Topdress

One of the beautiful aspects of golf course management is that no two golf courses are the same.  Golf courses in the same state, same town, or even "north/south" courses on the same property are different and there are a thousand different ways to maintain them and achieve the desired results. This is what makes golf course maintenance special and unique and gives each golf course superintendent the possibility to put his or her personal stamp on the golf course.

Topdressing of the greens is a vital process in maintaining healthy and well performing greens that putt well, drain properly, and are firm to accept impact from golf balls, foot traffic, and the weight of the golf course maintenance equipment.  For many years we have been applying our weekly topdressing sand with a mechanical spreader followed by a custom made drag mat to help incorporate the sand into the greens.  This process works well but we found ourselves collecting a large amount of the sand in our mower baskets the following days which was then discarded, having to do extra maintenance to the greens mowers due to the damage caused by the sand passing through the reel and bed knife, and having many disgruntled golfers no matter how hard we worked to get the sand worked into the greens.

So as some have noticed this year we have taken on a different approach to our topdressing program and so far are seeing very satisfying results.  Instead of using the heavy mechanical spreader which we had difficulty applying a consistent light topdressing with, we are using push spreaders like the ones used to apply fertilizers and other granular products to the greens.

A couple of years ago when we did the DryJect procedure on the greens we purchased dried bagged sand to inject in the greens.  We did not use all of the sand during this process and have been playing around with the idea and benefits of applying the sand with push spreaders since then. This year took the plunge and decided this is the method we are going to use to topdress our greens.  The use of bagged sand is more expensive than bulk order sand but this way we do not have any loss of product due to contamination, spillage during loading or transport to the greens, and we have an exact measurement of the amount of sand we are placing on the greens.

Our application rates are 5-10# of sand per 1,000 sq ft. each week depending on growth of the grass and how much play we have had or are expecting to have.  It is a light rate compared to that which is suggested by some research and golf associations but we have found the following advantages. We have eliminated any compaction on the greens from the heavy mechanical topdresser, eliminated the compaction and bruising of the turf caused by the drag mat machine, eliminated the loss of product due to spillage or contamination, eliminated the rush to get everything done before golfers start play (at this light rate we can do it in play and no one notices), and we have reduced the damage to the cutting units and all the expenses that go with having to change bedknifes, sharpen reels, and ease the frustrations of the equipment technician.

We are by no means discounting the importance of topdressing greens with sand.  It has many great benefits which we believe we are still experiencing and will continue to benefit from as we move forward.  This process will allow us to place less stress on the greens, our small numbered agronomy staff, our equipment technician, and will be less disruptive to your round while all along providing firm, fast, and true playing surfaces. Looking at the course with the "third story" mentality has allowed us to see that just because certain cultural practices might work at another golf course or be recommended by someone they may not be best for our course or work into our program.

We have had so many compliments on the course this year which we are grateful for and they have all been passed on to the agronomy team.  Changing the way we topdress our greens has freed up some time to do other things on the course like giving a "shout out" to my alma mater, Auburn University, while waiting for the mowers to finish grooming the greens. (It can't all be work you know) We really hope everyone is enjoying the changes we are making to the maintenance programs and philosophy at Harrison Bay as all the hard work done on the course is to benefit your game.

Showing the Tees, Fairways, and Driving Range some "Love"

Greens Aerification wasn't the only work that got accomplished last week.  We also performed summer cultural practices on tees, fairways, and the driving range tee as well.  All the tee boxes were aerified using 3/4" solid tines, topdressed heavily with sand, and then once dry enough the sand was drug in.  This practice will make the tees healthier, will increase drainage, and will loosen the compaction of the soil making it easier for you to get your tee in the ground, which we know has been a challenge sometimes this summer.

The big practice that we took on this year was to verticut or vertical mow the fairways.  This year since we had a few extra days I decided to go "deep" to really get down into the thatch layer and clean the grass up.  With the blades set at 1/4" below zero we surely accomplished that goal and pulled a lot of debris up.

Just like the verticutting units for the greens, the ones for the fairways are designed to cut into the turfgrass on a vertical plane pulling long stolons and dead/decaying thatch to the surface so it can be removed.  Here is a video of the fairway verticutter in action.  As you can see there is a tremendous amount of debris removed during this process.  Following the verticutting we blew as much of the clippings as we could from the fairways and mowed them in a circular pattern to "attack" the grass from different angles than it is used to which really cleaned the fairways up.  Since we do not have a leaf/turf vacuum to pick the clippings up there was a lot of debris to blow and you will still experience a little bit of it for a week or so but it will soon be gone.

One area that we really wanted to work on while the course was closed was the landing area on #10 where we installed all the drain lines this winter #10 Fairway Drainage Project Complete.  The work on this fairway has turned out great but the areas where the drains were installed needed to be smoothed out.  Using our John Deere tractor aerifier Willie aerified the landing area with 1" coring tines, allowed the cores to dry and then used a steel drag mat to bust up and spread the cores around.  The area was then blown off and rolled several times with the 1.25 ton vibratory roller we rented for the greens.  We also, as to not waste anything on our course, used the sand removed from #9 green that we had stockpiled in the parking lot to top dress the area heavily which will help continue to fill in the trenches and smooth the landing area out.

To try and make sure all the areas on our golf course felt some love throughout the week we also aerified and verticut the driving range tees on Thursday.  Using the same JD tractor and coring tines the range tees were aerified, then verticut with the Toro verticutters, all the sand drug in and then all the debris blown off to the front of the complex.

In fact there was so much thatch material removed from these tee boxes that when Willie got it blown to the front of the tee complex we had to take the Bobcat up to load it into a trailer to haul it off.  In total we removed 5 full trailer loads of clippings from the area which is an incredible amount.  Just goes to show how badly it was needed to be done, and therefore it will be done a little more often from now on so we don't get in this situation again.

We all love our golf course and believe that all the work we performed last week will only go to improve it moving forward.  We still have a few tees to top dress and will be blowing some of the clippings as we mow fairways over the next couple of weeks.  We are already seeing some response from the fairways as they look more lush and healthy and the tee markers are easier to set in the ground on the tee boxes.  It's always nice to see all the hard work paying off.

2016 Greens Aerification

Early Monday morning we began our summer aerification of the greens and other areas on the golf course.  Aerification is one of the most important cultural practices we do to the greens as explained in this Course Care from USGA Why Aerate?.  This year we chose to use a 1/2" side eject coring tine set on a 1/5" x 1.5" spacing.   Using this spacing we affected 10.91% of the green and removed close to 30 cubic feet of material from the green per 1000 sq ft.

The organic matter content of our greens has increased considerably over the years to over 6%.  The recommended limit for greens is 3% so this year we had to remove the cores and since we don't have the proper equipment to do this, it was left up to the agronomy team to do this manually.  It was a tremendous effort by our staff over two days to remove close to 3,900 cubic feet of material from the greens surface by hand.

Here is a plug taken from the putting green which if you remember was devastated by nematode damage coming out of dormancy this spring, Greens Update.  Two things to take from this picture 1) We have reduced the impact of the nematodes and the damage they caused, and have grown some very nice roots.  2) We have a considerable amount of organic matter (roots, thatch, live tissue) in the top 1.5" of the greens surface.  Ideally we should be closer to 3/4" of this organic layer. This layer is a haven for disease, nematodes, and holds excessive moisture making the greens soft and slower.  Removing this material will only make the greens perform and play better.

After all the cores were picked up and hauled away (to be used to fill in low areas, tree stump holes, and drainage lines around the course later) the greens were blown off leaving a clean surface.  The holes created by the aerifier were open and ready for sand.

After the greens were cleaned off they were double rolled and heavily topdressed with AS45 damp sand from Golf Agronomics.  Over the entire golf course we applied close to 35 tons of sand to the greens.  The sand was allowed to dry, actually a couple of times as we had a few stray showers pass through which got the sand wet again, and then drug in twice using a circle pattern.  After the second dragging the greens were heavily watered to relieve some of the stress from all the abuse to the surface and to work the sand into the surface.

The next step of the process was to perform a vertical mowing of the greens surface.  This year our intent was to remove as much organic matter from the greens as possible so we set the blades at 0.200" below zero and made passes up and back in two directions.  This process removes a lot of the dead and decaying leaf and stem tissue from the green.  It also pulls the stolons to the surface so they can be removed which will make the greens healthier and roll smoother.

In between each direction the greens were blown off to remove the debris from the green and allow for a cleaner and more consistent cut with the verticuttters on the next pass.

We verticut following aerification rather than prior to pulling the core because experience, and advice from our friends at East Lake Golf Club, has shown that this process helps to work the sand into the holes and reduce the size of the surface opening of the aerification hole.  The vertical mowing process will actually pull the leaf blades over the hole reducing the visual affect of the aerification process and will aid in helping the grass to grow over the opening faster which will help make the golfer happier, quicker.

The next step was to remove the leaf surface that was stood up by the vertical mowing process.  We set our sand reel cutting units at 0.150" and mowed up and back in one direction.  The greens were then blown off again and heavily watered again.

On Thursday the greens received another 35 tons of sand to continue filling in the aerification holes.  The sand will help to dilute the organic matter in the top of the greens profile, will help water and air exchange compared to the heavy thatch layer which was present in the top two inches of the green, and help smooth the surface out for better putting.  The greens were drug multiple directions and in circles after each mowing and topdressing.

After all the coring, topdressing, verticutting, mowing and dragging there is only one step left and that is to roll the greens with a 1.25 ton street roller.  The heavy roller will remove the majority of the tire tracks from the greens and start the greens along the path to recovery. Several different fertilizers and soil amendments were applied to the greens and after one final drag and after one more heavy irrigation cycle Greens Aerification 2016 was in the books.

So yes this has been a lengthy blog post but it has been a very long week and all the work done by your agronomy team will pay off tremendous benefits from here on.  I have to thank Robin and our upper management in Nashville for allowing us the time to perform all these tasks properly and not rushing through them as we normally have to.  We usually have only two days to accomplish all the tasks we performed over these five days but this way we got to take our time, slow down, and do the job better which will allow the course to recover quicker and perform better.

I can not thank our agronomy staff enough for their dedication and hard work.  After all the long hours for the TGA Match Play Championships last week to come right behind that with aerification was a lot to ask.  They performed flawlessly and had a great attitude the entire week doing all the hard work in the baking sun to make your golf course better.  If you see the agronomy staff out on the course let them know how much their commitment to the conditioning of the course means to you.  They deserve the recognition for all their efforts.

Managing Excessive Organic Material in Greens

Over the past couple of months we have been working very hard to recover our greens from the nematode infestation that we experienced coming out of dormancy as detailed in a previous blogpost Greens Getting Better Everyday.  With all the extra fertility we have had to apply to the greens to help them recover we have generated a lot more organic matter in the greens this year than usual causing them to be puffy, or have a "spongy" feeling, which reduces the firm, fast feel of the greens and allowing our greensmowers to start scalping and gouging areas in the greens.

We have worked too hard in getting the greens back to lay off of them now so that is why we got aggressive with our verticutting process this past week.  The whole idea of getting aggressive is to remove the stolons or top growth on the greens.  It looks very intense but is actually one of the best things we can do for our greens as it removes the excess growth in the greens, allows for more sand topdressing to be incorporated into the greens, creates a firmer faster surface, and reduces the potential scalping issues that we have been facing.

The greens were verticut in two directions at a depth of 0.125" below the surface using a backtrack mowing pattern meaning we verticut directly back up the pass we just did.  This is done to make sure all the green is consistently affected in the same way.

Verticutting or vertical mowing is accomplished by using blades which are set in a vertical position, thus the name, and designed to penetrate the surface of the greens to remove stolons and excess growth on greens.  The depth at which the blades are set determine the amount of material removed and the disruption to the putting surface.

So why do we spend the extra time and energy to backtrack mow?  The set up of the verticutting units and the growth habit of the greens to grow downhill and toward the sun requires this to insure a consistent affect to the entire surface.  The top picture shows the units going up hill or "into the grain" so the blades are actually not affecting much turf.  The bottom picture shows the blades going downhill so that the teeth shown above are actually reaching under the green surface and pulling the turf upwards.  If the greens were only verticut in one direction then every other pass would be affected more than the other and that would result in stripes across the green which would affect play and appearance for a very long time.  And no one wants that.

After the greens were verticut we used a tow behind turbine blower to remove any excess organic material from the greens surface before it was double cut with our sand reel mowers set at 0.130 and then single cut with our regular cutting units set at 0.120.  The amount of material removed from the greens is unbelievable and I wish there was a way to collect it all and pile it up so everyone could get a grasp of what is going on under that putting green surface and why these processes are necessary.

After the greens were double cut and then single cut they were moderately topdressed and drug in and then watered.  We really opened up the canopy of the greens with this process and the sand worked right into the voids we had created, so much so that we were able to come back on Wednesday morning and apply another dressing with sand to finish the process off and smooth the greens up so much more.

So on Wednesday some of the greens looked like this which did give credence to some of the comments we heard like "What have they done to the greens now?" or "They just got them back and now they have torn them up again".  But the greens putted very well considering their appearance just proving you should not judge a book by its cover.

So by Friday the greens were healed in from the verticutting process and better than they have been all year.  It takes some work to get and keep greens in the condition that golfers demand and as we are not closed one day a week for maintenance we have to perform these tasks when we can.  Normally we would not have been this aggressive during the playing season, and would have waited for our summer aerification closure, but this needed to be done and if I could I would do it again next week.  Don't worry I'm not.  Thanks for your patience and I hope you agree with me that the final result was worth the couple of days of pain.

What's Up With the White Sand??

"More sand, laddie" is a quote accredited to Old Tom Morris, the first greenskeeper at The Old Course at St. Andrews.  Topdressing greens and other areas on golf courses has been as common as mowing the greens since the beginning of the game of golf.  So why is there such an uproar when greens, and other areas of the golf course, are topdressed now. 

For many years we have been using dyed green sand to topdress our greens in an effort to appease golfers and lessen the amount of grumbling and complaints heard by the agronomy team and the proshop but this has been to the detriment of our greens. This picture shows the layering of fine green sand that had occurred over the many years of continuous use of green sand.

The problem with layering of sand in greens, especially green dyed sand is that it restricts the movement of water, air , and nutrients within the soil profile. The biggest problem is that the roots can not thrive in this environment and as you can see in this photo break off at this layer.

This is an electron microscope image of a sand particle. As you can see it is far from round and smooth as one might think. Each one of those pores or holes in the surface of the sand particle has the potential to act as a cation exchange site or an area in which nutrients and water can attach to later be used by the root system.

Now image you fill up or eliminate 70-80% of these valuable cation exchange sites with paint. Is it feasible to believe that the soil structure and the root system could function properly and provide us with the high quality putting surfaces that we are all demanding? 

For a better visualization with something we are all more familiar with, a golf ball. Imagine removing 3/4 of the dimples on a golf ball. The golf ball would not function properly and would not generate the lift that golfers demand.

I agree that green sand is more appealing to the eye but it is harmful to the health of the green and that is why we have discontinued the use of it at Harrison Bay. We are working to improve our course, not simply out to upset anyone. If you still have an issue with the white sand, see me. Don't take it out on the proshop or the outside operations staff. 

Time to Reset

I have to begin this blogpost with a sincere apology.  Over the past couple of years I have failed to do the job that I was hired to do; to be the caretaker, the protector, the "voice" of the golf course.  I have spent so much time trying to satisfy so many different entities from golfers, to management, to the proshop, that I have failed to care for the most important entity we have, the golf course itself.

One of my favorite movies is An American President and to quote Michael Douglas' character "I have been so busy doing my job, I have forgotten to DO my job.  Well, that all ends today."  I have spent countless hours worrying, stressing, and beating myself up over what we need to do on the golf course to keep everyone happy and not effect or interfere with anyone's golf game that I have failed to carry out many of the important agronomic practices that I need to carry out to ensure the golf course is in top condition.  That all ends today.

So what does that mean for you, the golfer.  We will be carrying out more of the vital and important cultural practices that we have put on the back burner such as verticutting, aerification, topdressing, and slicing to name a few.  Don't be surprised when you see an aerifier on the course or a slicer alleviating compaction and wear in the fairways, or the greens, tees, or approaches being topdressed with sand.  And we will be using white sand from now on for many reasons (cost, availability, and the fact that painted sand is harmful to the soil profile).  More on that in a later blogpost.

Now please don't get me wrong.  I greatly appreciate everyone who chooses to spend their hard earned dollars at our course.  We are blessed to have a great collection of loyal golfers and tournament directors that choose our course over all others in the area every day.  We have over 50 tournaments/outings per year bringing in over 4,000 of our 30,000 annual rounds and we will try our best to not interfere with your round or your outing but with three to four outings in some weeks we will have to perform some of our cultural practices when we have to do them.

As always if you ever have any questions about the course or what/why we are doing certain practices on the course please don't hesitate to contact me at paul.carter@tn.gov or stop me on the course and I will be happy to sit down with you as I have with others in the past several months.  Our job is to provide the golfer with the best golfing conditions possible within the constraints of our budget and manpower limitations but to do that we have to take care of the foundation of the property, the turfgrass.  I thank you, in advance, for being accepting and understanding of the maintenance being performed on the course.

DryJect--Sand Injection Aerification

Just like a mechanic can not overhaul an engine with just a 9/16" wrench, a golf course superintendent has to have several "tools" in his tool chest to maintain a golf course to high standards.  As many of you know the course was closed last week for two days so we could aerify the greens.  Well this year we broke out one of those different tools in our arsenal and were VERY pleased with the results.

The process is knows as DryJect.  The DryJect process, as you can see in the video, uses high pressure water to inject sand into the greens.  This process eliminates the mechanical removal of material from the greens which is the main cause for bumpy greens following aerification. In the video you can see the sand being delivered through the tubes into the injection chamber and then being injected into the green.

Close to 20 tons of dried bagged AS45 sand were injected into the greens during the process.  Our staff did a fantastic job keeping the hoppers full of sand and dealing with the heat and the popup rainstorms that slowed us down a bit.  Being able to inject this much sand at one time is incredible.  If we were to try and apply that much sand on top of our greens and drag it into aerification holes we would have had to place a layer of sand close to 3/16" deep on the green.  That would have been almost impossible to get drug into the holes and everyone would have been upset.

This is a photo of one of the injection points that I lucked up and got down the side of a cup as we reset the holes for play. There are better pictures of DryJect applications online if you are interested.  What this shows me is that we definitely achieved the goal we were shooting for which was to get below, or through, the traditional 4" aerification layer that we typically get during aerification.  If you look about half way down the cup you will see a dark layer and then it changes to a light brown.  The dark layer is where our traditional core aerification stops at, which in turn is where water and oxygen infiltration stops at, and where our roots stop at.  The light brown layer is where we want our roots to be but they can not get there due to the hardpan layer formed at the bottom of the coring stroke.  The DryJect application blasted a 1/2" column of sand through this layer and into the green between 6-8" inches deep.  Better oxygen and water infiltration will result in better roots and in turn better putting surfaces.

Here is a photo of a green following the DryJect process after it had been drug with our carpet drag.  The holes are 3" x 3" apart and the disruption to the putting surface is about the size of a 3/8" coring tine.

This is a photo of the same green after an application of our dyed greens topdressing sand and a drag.  Not pulling a core reduces the disruption to the putting surface and the use of the green sand helps to mask most of the evidence of the process being done.

One of the added benefits of using the DryJect process is the ability to inject helpful amendments into the soil that otherwise would be almost impossible to incorporate into an existing green.  On a couple of holes we injected Profile Porous Ceramic which will aid in firmness and water movement in the green.  We also injected Harrell's Divot Recovery Mix which has MaXand, EarthMAX, and Milorganite into one green to test how it would aid the green in recovery and overall health.  The options for this process are almost limitless and the return on investment, almost priceless.

I have to give a special thanks to Chad Gamble of DryJect of Tennessee, and his assistant Patrick, for providing this service for us.  Was it worth it financially?  The greens were injected on Wednesday and Thursday.  We did over 400 rounds Friday-Sunday with zero discounts and zero serious complaints (always have that one person, you know).  I had some of my biggest critics come up and tell me how nice the greens looked and how well they were rolling.  Time will definitely tell but as for now I feel it is worth every penny spent.