Nursery Green

On April 14th we prepared and seeded the back half of the nursery green by the maintenance area. Four weeks later we have seen the good results.  The green was seeded with the same G-2 creeping bentgrass that we have on all the greens at Bears Best Atlanta.  It is always exciting seeing a new green from the start. Below are some pictures.


Robert O'Campo seeding on April 14th



4 weeks later on May 12th

May 12th

Up close - Filling in nicely

Spring Dead Spot

Spring Dead Spot is a turf disease that affects bermudagrass starting in the fall.  When the turf goes dormant everything seems to be fine.  In the spring, when the dormant bermudagrass starts to green up, the patches of turf that were affected by the pathogen cannot take up water or nutrients and causes these small to large circles.  There are several fungicides that can be used in the fall, but none are very cost effective and reliable.  Research on Calcium Nitrate use as fertilizer has shown some success, but it can be hit and miss as well.  Most of the golf course has minimal Spring Dead Spot, but the worst holes are #12-#18, with #18 being the worst.  We will be spreading our summer fertilizer this week which will help with these spots as well as applying more in these areas to get the grass to grow over.  Below is #18 between the tee and the fairway.



Spring Dead Spot #18

 "

Annual Flowers

We finished up planting our annual flowers around the clubhouse, cart building and the golf course restrooms.  We planted three different kinds of annuals this year.  The red flowers in the pots at the front doors are called "Xtreme Red" Impatiens and need to be in the shade.  The taller more "vine" looking flower are called "Evita Rose" Lantana. They grow together up to 2 ft tall and bushy and like being out in the sun.  The other plant are called Cora Cascade Vincas.  They need to be in the sun or part shade. The two colors of vincas that are planted are "white polka dot" and "magenta."  You can get these annual flowers at any grower or home improvement store in the area.  We purchased ours from Premier Growers in Buford.




"Evita Rose" Lantana and "Cora Cascade Polka Dot" Vinca



Up close

Stimpmeter Video

http://www.gcsaa.tv/view.php?id=405

Pictures of Greens Aeration Recovery from Saturday Morning



Greens are healing up very nicely and really benefited from the 1.8" rain we had Friday night and Saturday morning.

Tuesday Afternoon



Saturday Morning











Tuesday Afternoon





Saturday Morning





















A day of Aeration

Aeration went very well on Tuesday.  We are already seeing good growth up through the sand and plan on mowing tommorrow (Friday).  The greens have been rolled twice and are rolling smoothly.  Here is the series of events on Tuesday.  Please click on each photo for a closer up view.

#9 Green Before we started with Dogwood trees blooming in the background



David Babcock Jr.(Equipment Tech/Shop Manager) aerating #10 Green with Toro Procore 648 and an attached TurfPride Core Collector



Crew Members blowing and cleaning up plugs on #6 Green

#1 Green after Topdressing

Dragging the sand into the holes on #10 Green

Close up of the greens after process was complete.  2"X1.5" spacing was used with almost 1/2" tines



We have rolled the greens twice with this Salsco roller and will continue as needed



Aeration is Tuesday April 12th

We will be aerating the greens on the golf course this coming Tuesday the 12th.  We have an outing Monday at 1:00PM and as soon as the outing goes out we will do the 3 practice greens to get a head start for Tuesday.  Doing these 3 greens on Monday will allow us to get all the kinks out and see exactly how the process will go.  We will get our sand settings down and put the crew in their "positions" to make Tuesday run more smoothly.  Here is a video regarding the need for aeration and how the process takes place.  Please look again at the blog later in the week to see pictures of the day and how the greens are recovering from aeration.

Rock Work

The maintenance crew has started to do some rock work around the cooler stands out on the golf course.  We are also doing some smaller areas along the cart path that are prone to rut up with cart traffic and beverage carts.  So far, the cooler stands on #10 Tee and #12 Tee are done and a small area long #15 cart path has been finished as well.  We will continue over the next few weeks to dress up and finish these areas.  Here are some before and after pictures.

Before

After

After

Aeration Scheduled for April 12th

We have scheduled our spring aeration this year for April 12th.  This is a little later than usual, but will provide optimum surfaces leading up and through Masters week.  The soil temperatures will be higher in April and we should see a quicker recovery than we would in March.  This is a very important process and will benefit the greens greatly.  I will post some articles over the next few weeks regarding aeration and the importance of the process.  He is a recent link from the USGA.

http://turf.lib.msu.edu/gsr/article/bevard-putting-3-4-11.pdf

More Rain

The golf course has held up well despite having around 3.75" of rain over the past ten days.  Another rain event is expected Wednesday with more heavy rain moving in.  The golf course maintenance staff will continue to repair bunkers and fix wash out areas to make the course as playable as possible.  Unfortunately, the Cart Path Only rule will be in place while the course remains wet.