Last day at Bear's Best Atlanta

Tomorrow morning, July 29th, will be my last day at Bear's Best Atlanta. I will be the new Director of Golf Course Maintenance at Quail Hollow Country Club in Concord, Ohio. This is also a ClubCorp property. My wife and I are both from Northeast Ohio and are very excited to get back home. Thank you to all the members and guests at Bear's Best for all the support the past 3 plus years. Please visit our new blog at http://qhccgrounds.blogspot.com

GO BUCKEYES!!!!

#5 New Tee Sod

Every year because of shade and the transition of the ryegrass, the blue and white tees on #5 struggle. The tee was 419 bermudagrass. This year because of the lower temperatures and all the rain those tee had no chance at recovery. We leveled it and resodded it with Zeon Zoysiagrass this week. Here are the pictures.

Roots are good

Below are pictures of #17 and #18 green and what it looks like below the surface. For July 15th, the roots are still in good shape and about 3-4" down.

#17 roots.  Looking good and holding soil/sand together.

#18 from the bowl where we always have trouble growing/keeping roots.  Very good for this time of the year

Rain and more rain

We have seen a total of 3.6" if rain since Monday night and more is forecasted through Monday the 8th. Monday the 1st we got 1.3", .7" Wednesday morning, 1" more on Thursday and another .6" early Friday morning. The course is wet, but still in great shape. We mowed greens and tees today and all the fairways and back nine rough were cut earlier in the week. We will get as much done tomorrow before play as the rain and course allows. With all this rain, the greens are soft, but are in great shape. They are the healthiest they have been in July in the past 4 years since I started here. The temperatures in the upper 70s the past few days have really given the greens a fresh start halfway through the summer.

Looking out the back door of the pro shop towards the Big Putting Green

Pictures from this week

Watering #12 green early Saturday morning

The "Whopper" Begonias looking good next to the white regular begonias

Wave Petunia's mixed in with new gold Lantana

Bianca mowing 17 green.  Dave checking moisture, Paul cutting collars and approaches

Getting some air

This past Wednesday and Thursday we punched little 1/4" cores on all the greens. This was a scheduled event and will allow air/water to get into the root system. We did not put any sand on them and only rolled them and set the flags before play. They have been mowed everyday since Friday and are hardly noticeable now.

This picture was taken right after 1/4" cores, blowing, rolling, fertilizing and watering.  Most of the holes have covered over now.

Moisture Meters

The use of moisture meters have gained popularity over the past few years and we at Bear's Best Atlanta have also adopted the process. We have used a meter, the TDR 300 from Spectrum Technologies the past four years. They give us a specific number or volumetric water content (VMC) for us to use. In conjunction with checking dew patterns, we take anywhere from 20-40+ readings per green in the morning and then monitor throughout the day. Watering then is based on weather conditions for the day. On low humidity days, the number we use is higher than on more humid days. We have greatly reduced the use of overhead sprinklers by hand watering the areas of the greens that need it. We keep much more consistent moisture in the soil this way. We have reduced our wilt in the afternoon, but also have been able to keep the surface healthier and firmer with drier conditions. These are the same meters that they use each week on the PGA Tour to dial in the moisture levels.

The readout we see on the screen when taking readings.  On this green, 33 readings were taken with an average VMC of 14.5%.  This spot was 14.4% 

Putting the probes in the greens

Tuesday topdressing

On Tuesday, we topdressed greens lightly and watered in the sand. This further smoothed and firmed up the putting surface. Because of our dense G2 bentgrass, it is difficult to work the sand into the canopy. Below is a picture taken two days after topdressing. Lets hope these temperatures continue and we have a mild summer.

Dense G2 bentgrass two days after a light topdressing

Storms

We received 6.1" of rain on Sunday, May 19th. About 3.2" fell in about a 2 hour window and washed everything out. Debris washed everywhere and the bunkers were destroyed. We will be working all week to get the bunkers back in order. Most everything else was cleaned up today.

#2 Fairway from 100 yards

#2 Green after the water had receded

#14 bunker

Creek bank between #4 and #5 (big uprooted tree)

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