Greens Brushing & Topdressing

 

This morning we took advantage of the beautiful weather before the outing, to double cut the greens with brushes in opposing directions and applied a light topping of sand. The greens are double cut daily here at GLCC and we typically mow with brushes down a minimum of three days each week throughout the summer golfing season, as part of our normal greens maintenance program.

Brushing is a non aggressive means of grooming the surface of the greens during the heat of the summer, eliminating grain and tightening the putting surface with minimal injury inflicted on the plants, when more aggressive cultivation is not recommended. This operation can be thought of much like combing out your hair before it's cut to length each time.

After the greens were mowed and brushed in two different directions this morning, we applied their light weekly sand topping. Topdressing helps to dilute thatch and organic matter, while smoothing the putting surface for fantastic ball roll distance and increasing the greens ability to accept a shot. 

The finished product today on greens looks outstanding, leaving the turfgrass plants happy and healthy! After a double cut in the morning and a dry roll in the early afternoon tomorrow, the greens will be rolling well for league and the week ahead.

The crew did a fantastic job today, mowing the entire course and completing many detail jobs before the outing started. Well done Team!!! 

Fairways Get a Haircut

Today we mowed the fairways for the first time of the season and they look terrific! The fairways are in wonderful condition this spring and its nice to see they made it through the extremely harsh winter in top notch form. The weather this past week has been absolutely beautiful, allowing us to knock out a bunch of work and get the course pepped for spring golf. 

Today we also made our first foliar spray application to the greens and approaches. This spray application will provide the pants a bit of food to encourage spring green up, along with fungicide protection against a Pink Snow Mold infection with the cooler/wet conditions forecasted for next week. 

First Greens Mowing

Today we mowed the greens for the first time of the 2014 season and cut fresh cups for the second time. This past weekend we had our first golfers of the season; it was nice to see several members out enjoying the sunshine and warmer temperatures finally. 

We are very pleased with the health of the greens at this point and it's nice to see them all standing at attention. This closeup picture above shows the tight, healthy, prostrate growth of the turfgrass plants, with a light layer of topdressing sand still visible on the surface. 

It's refreshing to get back out on the course and cut some grass after a long winter of record snowfall and persistent extreme temperatures. Spring has finally sprung at the club!