Weekly Updates
Idle Hour Golf Course Maintenance
With the ongoing clubhouse renovations disrupting regularly scheduled communications, I thought I would utilize this space to bring everyone up to speed what has been happening on the golf course the past few weeks.
Fairways were deep solid tine aerified on February 26th. The tail end of February did provide a few nice days that saw the team perform routine golf course maintenance work. However, we spent the better portion of our time in late winter focused on improving sunlight penetration and air flow circulation along the southern boundary of the golf course.
March ushered in our cultural practices and the team was very busy in week one. All greens were topdressed and solid deep tine aerified. This was immediately followed by hollow core aerification with the cores removed and topdressing sand worked into the canopy and holes.
The next day Kentuckiana Turf Solutions were on hand to perform DryJect aerification to all the putting greens. Deep tine, hollow core, and DryJect in twenty-four hours is AGGRESSIVE as we strive to improve the performance of our putting surfaces with regards to water infiltration before the warm season arrives.
Next, tees were hollow core aerified while the approaches benefited from the DryJect process. The irrigation system was pressurized, and the rough started to grow which mowing was initiated, no turning back now. ;)
With the cultural practices in the rear view we focused on fertilization and plant protection as applications were made throughout the golf course. The team returned to tree management on the boundary, and the native areas were mowed to make ready for preemergent herbicide.
We had to relocate a portion of the irrigation system that supports the tees on Hole 1. The clubhouse renovations had a footer for a new column located directly on top of the head servicing the back tee, so the team had to excavate to expose the line, remove a portion in order to allow for the pipe to move out of the area of disturbance. Hats off to the guys for making that happen.
Most recently we edged all bunkers and made herbicide applications to the zoysiagrass portion of the practice tee to ready it for the upcoming season. Then we covered the tee to insulate the soil and help raise the soil temperature to levels more conductive for zoysiagrass growth. The goal here is to accelerate the tee’s readiness for use and have everyone hitting bombs from the grass sooner than last year. Stay tuned
You may recall last year’s robot mower demo we performed on Holes 2 and 5. The Committee decided this year to evaluate the overall performance and impact of robot mowers for a full season so we’ve been working with our electrical contractor to get power to two charging stations ready in efforts to have the robots operational in April.
Speaking of April, it all starts tomorrow with new cups, flags, and flagsticks. Plus the return of our iconic Idle Hour horseshoe tee markers. Just in time for the Keeneland Spring Meet.
The golf course is scheduled for a bulk spread fertilizer application on April 6 and then it will be time for The Masters. Wow, and just like that we caught up, and jumped ahead.
Thanks for reading, and happy golfing!