How to achieve "Ludicrous Speed"

We have just completed the Men's Member-Guest event, and received many nice comments regarding the condition of the golf course overall, and the greens in particular.  While the greens have been rolling well for a few weeks now, we geared up the maintenance practices last week as the tournament neared. 

One of the first things we did to the greens was give them a good grooming using our verticut units set flush with ground level.  This process takes any grass that is growing horizontally and neatly nips it.  

We followed this up with a mowing (or two), which removed all of the material the verticutting units had generated.

Next came a dusting of sand, with approximately 200 pounds per green being applied.  The sand fills any voids in the turf, creating a smoother putting surface.

We then gave the sprinklers two spins to knock the sand off the leaf and move it down into the canopy.

We also sprayed the greens, applying another good dose of growth regulator.  

During the week, the greens' height of cut was lowered by just a hair--five thousandths of an inch--so maybe the thickness of two hairs.

In addition to a whole lot of mowing, there was plenty of rolling during the week.

The end result of all of this work were some pretty slick surfaces.  It is definitely nice to be past the summer heat and back to a time when we can push the greens without much concern.

An early haircut

 After the past six months, many of us could use a good haircut, and we can include the course's native areas in this list as well.  While we typically we wait until October to begin the process of mowing, the summer's weather has many of these areas out of control.  

We did a spring mowing, and came into the summer with good weed control, however between July and August we had close to 16" of rain.  Combine this with the summer's heat, and we had prime conditions for grass and weed growth--and lost balls.

In addition to the mowing, we have also gotten back on addressing any weeds, and are using a number of different selective herbicides to target the sedges, undesirable grasses, and broadleaf weeds.  As we often say, you can call these native areas, Fescue, or low-mow, but you definitely can't call them low maintenance.

Feeling the burn...

 When we come upon some brown turf, it's time to do a bit of detective work to determine the cause.  After all, there are many ways to kill grass on a golf course (disease, insects, mechanical stress,  too much water, not enough water, pesticide misapplication, gas spill, hydraulic leak, and of course, Great Blue Heron droppings).    The picture below was taken on #6 fairway a couple of weeks ago:

You really didn't need to be Hercule Poirot to figure this one out.  However, we are still left with one unanswered question--sunscreen or insect repellent?

Yes, either of those products may have caused this injury.  So, while protecting yourself is important, please apply these products when you're standing on a cart path or other non-turf surface.