This week at Sunset: 5-8-2017

#6 green during the rain shower on Thursday.

Last week, we got some much needed rain that we’ve needed for over 2 months. We received around 2” between the rain on Monday and Thursday (1.70”). Hopefully, we won’t go another 2 months till our next decent amount of rain.



Next week, we will begin our regular topdressing schedule. We plan to lightly topdress the greens every two weeks. So, why topdress? This is a common practice that many golfers don’t really understand. Many golfers feel that sanded greens play poorly. The benefits of topdressing will improve the smoothness, reduces thatch, improves turf recovery, increases firmness, and improves the rootzone which will cause better drainage in the soil profile as well as less compaction. 


A verticutted green
Also, along with topdressing, we will be verticutting the greens at least once every 3-4 weeks. What is verticutting? The process is using a greens mower that instead of mowing with regular reels it has vertical blades that cuts into the turf. Along with topdressing, the benefits of verticutting is priceless on TifEagle greens. Those benefits are removing excessive leaf growth, improve mowing quality, increases stolon growth and promotes upright growth habit, and it opens the green up for the incorporation of topdressing. Also, it helps on grainy greens and makes it more consistent across the surface. The frequency of verticutting will heavily depend on the health of the greens. After next week's initial verticut, I will gauge on how often our verticutting schedule will be.

You will notice something different with the tee markers as you tee it up tomorrow. Last Thursday, we started on our new tee markers. It was a good day to start this task with all the rain. I’ve included a couple pictures below of that process. We cut up some fence posts and painted the angled faces and then stained them for protection from the weather. Hopefully these will last for some time and add to the character of the course.



ABOVE: Fletcher and Deshaun cutting and painting tee markers. MIDDLE: Tee markers drying.  BOTTOM: Finished product

As a reminder, please remember to keep golf carts behind the white lines that you see throughout the golf course. We do not need any traffic inside those white lines or around the greens. With the Bermuda grass in its most vulnerable stage with the transition in full swing it is important to keep traffic away from highly sensitive areas- greens complexes, tops of teeboxes, and other weak areas throughout the course. Help us out by keeping your golf cart behind the white lines and off the green complexes and near the tops of tees. Those of you who use pullcarts are fine to cross the line as pullcarts are lighter and less aggressive. However, make sure not to pull your carts across the green. Again, I want to thank everyone for helping us keep your golf course healthy and in shape.

Thank you for following us this week as we strive to get better every day. As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions/comments that you may have by using this blog, Facebook page, or emailing me at davisjoey@hotmail.com. Thanks for reading!


See you on the course!


Joey Davis

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