As we head into the holiday weekend, you will undoubtedly notice an area of soon to be dead turf in the middle of #14 fairway. This was caused by a blown hydraulic hose on one of our older fairway mowers. Since we are scheduled to aerify fairways next week, the repair to this area will have to wait until after the aerification process is complete. Luckily we have plenty of sod on our nursery. Like the title says, there’s never a good time for this to happen.
Month: August 2013
Defense Wins Championships
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Removing dew from the fairways |
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Extremely high canopy temperatures. Time for Defense! |
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Sprayers ready to go when necessary |
A Friendly Reminder
Over the last few weeks I have had several questions regarding replacing divots in the fairways. Not specifically about how to replace them, but more in regards to why individuals are not replacing them at all. My honest answer to that question is that I don’t really know, but it has certainly escalated to the point where I feel like I need to give everyone a gentle reminder to make sure that they get replaced regardless of size or shape. I will also use this opportunity to remind you to please use the Practice Facility for practice and not our fairways (see photo below).
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Practice divots not replaced on #2 fairway |
The follow-up question always seems to be “Why don’t we have sand on the carts?”. When sand is available on the carts, it is human nature to go to the quickest/closest solution. We have found that when sand is on the carts, there is very little, if any, attempt to retrieve a divot. A perfect example is the par-3 tees. We provide sand for the divots, but how many divots are actually replaced? I won’t spend this entire post reviewing common course etiquette, but will refer you to a post from two years ago as a reminder. The post can be found by clicking here. Some of the agronomic references in the linked post don’t necessarily apply right now, but the basic concept of course etiquette still holds true.
Below are some sample photos that I took this morning to use as an example to answer some of the questions about divots and ballmarks.
Fairway Divots: If the divot contains roots, it has a very good chance to survive. Regardless of size or shape, please replace any turf that is removed after a shot. Not every divot will recover, but by replacing what is removed, it gives the divot the best chance for survival and also keeps the course clean and minimizes the damage to mowers from divots that are not replaced.
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Large, deep divots have a very good chance for survival. |
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Thin divots like this have a decent chance to survive, but it depends greatly on the weather. |
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Skimmed divots generally will not recover, but should be replaced out of habit to help keep the course clean and fill the void left by the shot. |
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If the end result of repairing your ballmark looks like this, it was not repaired properly. |