Downside of winter project work...

Pat Quinlan, Madison Golf Club, Madison, NJ:

"The beauty of doing large course projects in the winter such as the work on the bunkers is great because it does not interfere with member play at that time of year. One negative can been seen in the photos below where a staple used to hold the bunker liner in place was hammered into an irrigation pipe, causing a leak that was not detected until we charged the system."

Visit Pat's blog at mgcgreens.blogspot.com

St. Martins Restoration...

Dan Meersman, Philadelphia Cricket Club, Philadelphia, PA:

"Below are photos of our recent restoration of PCC's original 9-hole St. Martins course (which dates back to the 1800's). This restoration was performed with golf course architect Keith Foster using PCC's staff.

It is wonderful for our members to have this work completed prior to the restoration of our Wissahickon course. It will also be extra special for our members to have their original US Open course restored prior to the US Open returning to Philadelphia next year!

As we excavated the bunkers, the original perimeters from the 1800's became clearly evident (notice the interior edge of the bunker in the photo). The combination of over 100 years of sand build-up on the faces from bunker shots, and gradual edging, caused the bunkers to eventually become more rounded and bland in shape. As this happened the bunkers gradually became more sand-flashd as the original grass faces were slowly lost. Discovering these original features and restoring their concepts made for very special, heart-felt work.

In order for the St. Martins course work to be executed, it needed to be done in a creative, cost effective manner. The below photos show that after we lowered fore-ground, the existing sod was re-placed.

See more photos of bunker work, green expansion and drainage work at PCC at philacricketgm.blogspot.com

Now is the time!

Josh Clevenger, Claremont Country Club, Oakland, CA:

"It's that time of year again ladies and gentlemen, time for the process you've all been waiting for... The Punching of the Greens!

As you all know, the spring aeration is one of the most important practices there is to ensure healthy and resilient turf throughout the growing season. The important thing is the greens and surrounding areas are firm enough to hold up to the heavy traffic that takes place during the process. The slide below depicts the effect of aeration in the soil and to the turf.

We appreciate the flexibility given by the membership to properly perform the spring aeration. When putting the club calendar together late last year, much thought was given to the timing of these aeration's and a decision was made to block off a four week period starting March 12th for weather dependent aeration. This is an important step in putting the golf course first as this time of year, the weather will dictate how and when we can implement this all important practice. Looking at the forecast we feel that now is the time."

Visit Josh's blog at claremontturf.blogspot.com.

What a lovely June we are having....

Dan Salois, Highland Meadows Golf Club, Swanton, OH:

"The unfathomably warm weather has jump-started the golf course in an unprecedented fashion. Air and soil temperatures that we wouldn't normally see until April or even May have the turf "leaping" out of the ground and growing like mad. With our limited late-winter/early spring staff, it has been 'all hands on deck' just to keep the mowers in motion. As you can see in the photo, our December "dormant" application of fertilizer has the greens lush and growing like mad. The yellow rectangles are where we placed plywood to prevent fertilizer from hitting the putting green when we made the application December 3rd. As you can see, the fertilizer has made quite a difference in our spring 'green-up'.

Aside from keeping the grass cut, we have also been out applying our crabgrass control products. To put things in perspective, the proper timing for this application would be somewhere around April 15th. This season, temperature models and the blooming forsythia had us out as early as March 19th. We are almost a month ahead of "normal".

I took some soil profiles from the greens today. The root length and density are the best I've seen in the springtime for our old Poa/Bent greens. Thank you for putting up with our greens aeration practices. They are paying dividends that will translate into better overall conditions during the peak season. Spring aeration is still scheduled for April 9th.

Overall, it is a startling start to the spring. Bear with us while we try to keep up with the mowing. The grass will be a little thick and messy in spots, but we should get caught up soon if the weather decides to get back to normal."

Visit Dan's blog at hmgcmaintenance.blogspot.com.

A little extra wiggle room...

Craig DeJong, Hendersonville Country Club, Hendersonville, NC:

"A bit of cartpath edging has been happening here. Along the way we discovered a huge chunk of hidden cartpath. The sod we pulled up was actually quite good, and came in handy."

Visit Craig's blog at hccgcgd.blogspot.com.

Leveled tees and short-cut blue...

Ken Thompson, Greate Bay Country Club, Somers Point, NJ:

"In early March we stripped, leveled and sodded the forward tee on 9 and the middle tee on 12. Over the years these tees became camel-backed from divot taking and filling. We sodded both tees with short cut bluegrass, which we are trying out after it was recommended by Dave Oatis, our USGA consultant. Last fall we sodded other tees on the 7th, 9th and 13th holes with short cut blugrass, which is being used successfully at Bethpage and other courses.

The 12th middle tee stripped and leveled.

Silvio and Isidro sodding the 12th tee.

Silvio rolling the sod after installation on the 9th tee.

Yesterday we pulled the covers and I have to say that I am amazed at the results. The short cut bluegrass sod was growing wild and had already rooted down more than 2"! Since it had grown so tall so fast, we used the push rotaries to cut it. We will gradually lower the height of cut over the next few weeks, let the roots get stronger, and get the tees in condition to open.

The short cut blue took off!

""Pushing thru the blue."

All mowed.

Visit Ken's blog at greatebaycc.blogspot.com/.