Spring Maintenance
Every spring brings new challenges, but a lot of the work is routinely done every spring. Usually by the 15th of March we have a pretty good Idea of how the turf came thru the winter. Things that can effect the turf during the winter are several, but a few are, Turf dehydration, this occurs when exposed turf in real cold weather is subject to extreme wind over a period of time, it actually dries out to the point that it dies. Also turf under Ice for a long period of time can cause death as well. A long period of snow cover can lead to snow mold, a fungus that lives on wet turf under snow as well as on just saturated turf. We spray our fine turf areas for this disease but depending on length of snow cover and the time of the winter that it is covered, control measures can fail. Assuming the turf came thru the winter well, next we must assess the frost level; a deep freeze can make the greens extremely soft and subject to deep foot printing. Having a lot of foot traffic on greens in these condition can cause a lot of root damage as well as causing extremely rough putting service in spring. If this condition occurs we close the greens for a short period of time until they firm up. After assessing these conditions it is time to evaluate course clean up. Some springs are better than others. We have learned over the years not to start to early. Spring winds and Ice storms can create a lot of debris. Usually cleanup starts last week of March and can last thru mid April. Other labor intence spring jobs include getting traps in shape to play, greens rolled and top dressed, setting all mower lines for the season. This is all done hopefully by mid April.
Greens aerifying will occur on May 4th and 5th. The course will be completely closed on Monday May 4th and 9 holes will be closed on Tuesday May 5th until we are finished, usually weve had all 18 open by 2PM on Tuesday.
Summer Maintenance
During the summer months of June, July, August grooming of the golf course is our #1 priority. This includes daily mowing, weekly applications of plant protectents, fertilizers as needed, Topdressing to keep greens smooth, divot repair, trap maintenance.
Fall Maintenance
Fall maintenance actually starts in late August when we aerify our greens. This gets needed air back into the soil. Compaction that occurs from maintenance as well as the golfer pushes a lot of the air out of the soil, and roots need air as much as water to survive. Aerifying at this time is best for the turf recovery and also for my staff, September our crew is a lot smaller and the days get shorter.