It's been quite a while since I put anything on the blog. I have been busy with many different facets of the golf course the last two months.
The last post I had was dedicated to the fairway damage from Winter Kill. We tried seeding the fairways with Bermuda grass. That was a big dud. As soon as we finished seeding it rained for like a week and a half. All of the low areas that were damaged from holding too much moisture continued to hold too much moisture. My best guess is that the seed was either covered by debris and couldn't find the light of day, or it simply rotted in place. After that experiment failed we decided to aerify a couple of the fairways and push the cored to the bad areas and use that vegetation to regrow the areas. This was a successful method, very labor intensive but successful. We had our worst fairway on #3 that had no grass on the front half of it, so aerifying was not an option. We started cutting sod in house from rough areas that were going to be converted to native this fall. This was even more labor intensive but at the same time productive. In August we ran out of time and labor for cutting sod in house so we got 6 pallets of Bermuda for the biggest areas on #3 fairway. Finally today we are laying the last few small spots on #3 to finish it up. I am glad that the weather has been as cool as it has been this season. The greens have been easier to maintain in this weather so that we could focus more on the fairways.
I think that one good thing has come from the Winter Kill. We have seen what Hole #9 looks like when it has no cart traffic. We actually have rough on the inside of the dog leg. We have decided to keep the hole cart path only for the long haul to protect the character of the hole.
I know I've said it before and I'll say it again. I hope never to go this long again without posting on this forum.
