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Holiday Weekend


Peter Braun

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Yesterday was the celebration of America's Independence, but I had to work and it rained almost all day. I heard back home the weather was great following some crazy storms in the past week. Still a lot of work was finished at Mt. Juliet this past week. 

 

Core aeration and topdressing was done to a couple of tee boxes per hole. This is a necessary cultural practice to remove thatch, improve drainage, and increase air to the roots. At Mt. Juliet we use a Ryan aerator and on the tees a core cultivator to pick up the cores. Then a topdressing of sand goes down manually. Yes the topdressing is done in teams of 2 throwing sand across the tee with a shovel, or spade. At the courses I have worked previous we would use a Dakota Spreader to apply a heavy topdressing. While the manual topdressing is labor intensive it is very accurate, but takes a great amount of skill to get an even layer of sand. 

 

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After the topdressing has been put on we wait for it to dry out. This makes it easier to get the sand into the holes because that is a goal of topdressing, to refill the hole with sand. Once dry the sand is worked over with a few guys and bunker rakes. After the first pass you can see if any areas need more sand. Then a Smithco bunker rake with a drag mat attached goes over the area making sure all holes are filled. If not the topdressers have to come back and fill up the holes not completed. In the end the tees will see a number of benefits. The rain yesterday helped with washing in the sand on the tees. In the next week the grass will grow and be mowed and soon you will not know that the tees ever had anything done to them.

 

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On Thursday after work I played  the putting course with Eddie, Lee, and Sheamus. I did not realize how fast the putting course would be since the greens are mowed at 4mm (0.157 in) compared to 3mm (0.118 in) for the regular course greens. With many undulations and turns on the greens, almost everyone has a dogleg, the ball picks up speed. You need a soft touch to beat the course. The course is tricky, but really fun. I will be making it a weekly event to play the course and see it improve over my time here. 

 

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Friday I changed the cups on the putting course. A good root zone for greens is anything over 4 inches, but on these greens I am lucky if I have 2.5 inches. The greens have a lot of Poa annua in them, but it will be a challenge to improve the root zone for better growth. I am excited to put my turfgrass education and knowledge to the test to see if I can get the greens back to being healthy. 

 

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