Turf News
14 MAY 2022
Turf update from Christine Kumagai:
It has been an incredible week of sunshine and warm weather. Our greens are coming around and the course is finally drying up. We dropped mowing heights on our greens once our Poa Annua started to make a comeback. Now that we have had some dry weather the greens are firming up and we are starting to get some good ball roll. We are planning to start some of our agronomic practices on greens next week with some verti-cutting and top dressing to promote upright growth and dilute some thatch.
All our summer students are back to work and getting some really great work done in bunkers. They have re-built all our bunkers from winter damage, pulled loads on loads of weeds out, and have stirred the bases every day to keep the sand soft and clean. Last Friday we put rakes out in all bunkers, so we are now asking that you rake yourself out after bunker shots. When you are finished with your rake, please place it neatly inside the bunker so it is easy to find for the next person. Those green rakes are sometimes hard to find buried in the grass!
In addition to raking your footprints, please fix ball marks and fill divots on fairways as these go a long way to help the turf team stay on top of cleaning up the previous day's play every morning. We were very lucky to have the help of the golf department 2 weeks ago with filling fairway divots. It had to have been the coldest and windiest day, but in 4 hours and approximately 30 people, we were able to fill every divot on almost all of Copperhead. When divots are left unfixed, it really takes an army to repair all of the damage! One more reminder to add is that our fescue/long grass and naturalized areas are for foot traffic only. Please do not take your golf carts through these areas.
Coming up these next couple of weeks we are preparing for a big order of sod! Now that we have had some dry weather, we are able to get into some of the bunkers we filled in late last fall. We are putting the finish grade on these bunkers, and we are looking to have grass on them by next week! Additionally, the pine trees that we unfortunately lost over the winter have tree wells that are left bare in which we will be sodding as well.
Sincerely,
Christine Kumagai, Golf Course Associate Superintendent
Divots-Day:
The RattleSnake Point army (comprised of staff from turf, golf services, and management) recently battled the elements to fill hundreds of divots across the CopperHead golf course.
Please click on the below video links to see how to repair ball marks and fix divots.
Please repair ball marks with the proper technique to keep our golf greens looking fantastic. Also, the good karma will help you hole that next putt!
Unrepaired divots create scars and damage that may not heal for many months or ever.
Please join our fight to combat ball marks and divots by repairing and fixing them.