After back-to-back weeks of a scheduled tournament and a stat holiday, we are happy to have a Maintenance Morning today. As stated in previous blog posts, these maintenance mornings allow us to accomplish some crucial cultural practices that are either not possible or are completed very inefficiently when golfers are on the course. Delaying play until 11am makes all the difference in the world when attempting to schedule and complete these tasks.
Today is an extremely busy Maintenance Morning as we are verti-cutting approaches and fairways. Not only that, we are also topdressing, slicing and matting the greens. All of these tasks are very time consuming and require time in between each step of the process for either material to dry and/or operators to changeover equipment. Also, some operators are required to complete multiple steps in the process, therefore only without the interruptions of golfers can these tasks be completed properly and efficiently.
We verti-cut our fairways with a tractor drawn piece of equipment called the Brouwer. Verti-cutting is a way of removing thatch and slicing grass blades that have become matted and difficult to mow. Here are a few of photos of this process:
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| Brouwer verti-cutting #1 fairway |
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| thatch being brought to the surface |
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| resulting thatch on the surface following verti-cutting |
The resulting thatch is then either blown off of the fairways and into the rough using high-powered tow-behind blowers or the fairways are mowed and blown off after the harvested thatch is dry. Mowing the fairways at this time is ideal as the verti-cutting process tends to stand up any matted turf allowing for a very clean cut. The process for verti-cutting the approaches is relatively the same as fairways, it just requires smaller equipment to handle the tighter areas.
We are applying a medium-light topdressing to the greens this morning and are following that with slicing via our Planet Air aerator. This slicing results in improved water infiltration rates, air and gas exchange capability and promotes an overall healthier growing medium. All of this is accomplished with minimal disruption to the putting surface. Once the topdressing sand is matted into the open slices and the green is rolled, most golfers will not be able to detect that anything was even done. Here are some photos of this process:
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| #2 green being topdressed ahead of the Planet Air |
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| Planet Air slicing #2 green |
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| #2 green topdressed and sliced, ready to be matted |
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| finished product ready for play: topdressed, sliced and matted |
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