One quick not so positive thing to touch on. On the evening of August 22 there was some vandalism done to number 13 green. There was a total of 28 gouges taken out of the putting surface. It is really hard for us to see this happen as a maintenance department because we really do take pride in trying our best to provide our customers with the best possible conditions that we can. So it hurts to see someone go out and abuse all of our hard work.
Some of the gouges on 13 green
We received our new Toro 1250 sprayer on September 5. We have used the sprayer three times so far since we have received it and have been very happy with its performance. Our 15 year old John Deere sprayer was beginning to show its age and mechanical issues unfortunately were becoming very common. Having this new sprayer gives us the peace of mind that we will be able to use our sprayer and know that it will do exactly what it should. The sprayer is definitely one of the most important pieces of equipment that we have, especially given the large amount of disease that the course has had lately.
Our new sprayer
We finally after many delays began the seeding process on the 2011 flooded holes 4, 5, 6, and 7 on Thursday, August 22. We completed seeding on Wednesday, September 4. For this process we used a hydroseeder. The first thing we did was put out the seed using our big overseeder behind a tractor on fairways and rough. For greens and tees we pushed a drop seeder to put the seed out. We then worked the seed into the root zone mixture using our John Deere bunker rake. We then finished by putting a hydroseed mixture out over the entire area. The hydroseed mixture contained mulch, tackifier and fertilizer. The mulch is used to protect the seed, hold in moisture to keep the seed moist, and to help hold the seed in place in wind and rain. The tackifier is the sticky substance that holds the mulch and seed down against any environmental elements. And the fertilizer is used to provide food for the seed to germinate and once it is becoming established also.
Seven fairway after seed and hydroseed applied
It has almost been a week now since the last area was seeded. I am happy to report that the grow-in process is going quite well. The earlier areas that we had seeded have lots of growth and are filling in quite nicely. But even our most recent areas are germinating well now and are looking like they should turn out well. For the rest of this process now it is basically up to the irrigation system to do its job and keep the seed wet. We will probably begin cutting some of the greens and tee boxes in a little less than a week and some fairways will be first cut in a couple weeks.
Germination five days after seeding
Seven days after seeding
Seven fairway 15 days after seeding
It is hard to believe that it will be the middle of September very soon and that the golf course season wrap-up tournament is this weekend already. The season has went by very fast. We will hope that the nice weather continues far into the fall so that we can accomplish a lot more on the course before winter and be able to keep golfing for a while yet. It has definitely been a weird year this year but I believe it has been very successful. We have accomplished a lot of major projects and the course is just looking better and better every day.
Hole 3
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