Aeration, seed and sod update

Outline for the next few weeks....

GREENS
Greens have been aerated and are healing well. We have begun to sod areas void of turf. We will continue to roll the greens for smoothness and hope to get everyday greensmowers back on the greens Friday. During the next few weeks, greens will be spiked with a 7" long deep tine to increase their ability to grow long roots and will be seeded with two varieties of creeping bentgrass. (Both projects are non invasive for golf) The area left and back of 12 green will be sodded during October or November.

GREEN COLLARS
We have begun to repair green collars. Some areas will be seeded while large areas will have new sod laid.

FAIRWAYS
All damaged fairways have been seeded at least once with creeping bentgrass. We will continue to pound seed into damaged fairways to establish as much bentgrass as possible. Bentgrass seed is small and plants that germinate are as well. We have seen seed germination everywhere! However, don't expect to see voids of turf covered in new bentgrass plants overnight. Bentgrass is slow to establish but once present, will move laterally over the surface to take over large areas next summer and beyond. More bentgrass will mean more reliable fairway turf for fairways.

We are working to learn as much about Gray Leaf Spot disease. We have spoken to plant pathologists and will communicate more information as we learn.

We are planning a more large scale aeration operation for fairways, possibly for early winter or next spring. A large scale fairway aeration operation is not wise at this time because of the presence of delicate bentgrass seedlings which are prone to being ripped out of the ground. More on this project as we move forward.

ROUGH
Rough areas damaged by GLS will be seeded beginning next week. Like fairways, we will continue to pound seedlings into the ground to guarantee success.

TEES
Tees will be aerated before the end of September. All tees will be aerated twice each
as is our custom.

As always, thanks for your patience while we continue to make improvements to the golf course. We will update everyone on the status of each project weekly.

Patrick Gertner CGCS