6th green stimped

The 6th green was stimped at 10.25ft this morning at 8:10am. We
received a small shower prior to this stimp reading.

William Brown, CGCS
Regional Agronomist

Pegasus Golf Management

Sent from my iPhone

11th Green Stimp 9/29

This morning the 11th green was stimped at 10.25' on the stimp meter.

11th green stimp

The 11th was stimped at 10' at 9:00am this morning.

William Brown, CGCS
Regional Agronomist

Pegasus Golf Management

Sent from my iPhone

Green speeds

Today at 2:30pm the ninth green was stimped at 9' 11". This speed is
subject to change based on temperature, humidty and daily growth. We
continue to cut greens 6 to 7 days a week and rolling 4 to 5.

Tonight at the BOA meeting I will be discussing some interesting
research conducted by USGA correlating topdressing sands and green
speeds/firmness. These findings are being initiated at Hartefeld.

William Brown, CGCS
Regional Agronomist

Pegasus Golf Management

Sent from my iPhone

10th Green Repaired

Attached are some photos of the repair of the 10th green. The 10th green was suffering from a severe bout of wet wilt. This green contains three drainage trunk lines, one of which exits the back left where our issue was. We initially felt the issue was with the drain lines, upon opening the green we found it to be another issue.

When greens are built to USGA specifications there are a few variations. These include, to add a chocker layer between the gravel and sand layer and/or to install a wicker barrier(plastic liner). In the past, the wicker barrier will line the entire boundary of the green with a smile drain installed at the lower areas of the green. When greens are constructed without a smile drain, many times the wicker barrier will not be installed to allow water to exit the green's profile at the lowest point. Neither of these cases existed on our 10th green. There was no smile drain installed on the back left and the wicker barrier existed around the entire circumference of the green.

When we began digging into the edge of the green, it was clear the wicker barrier was causing the problem. Besides the mottled sand (iron oxidation in the soil turning the soil gray) there was water sitting against the barrier. We excavated the green down to the gravel layer and removed the entire wicker barrier along the area of concern. We installed the sand layer and sodded part of the back left side. The remaining thin areas were seeded with bentgrass.

As of today, the green was showing enormous improvement. The right side of the green is also improving and has been seeded. If we continue to have the same rain patterns, we will be removing the wicker barrier along the right side of the green as well.

Below is a photo of the wicker barrier still installed

Below is a photo of the mottled soil that was removed from the green. The mottling occurs when iron is oxidized. This is always a defining sign that there is a lack of oxygen because of the presence of water. Closely you can see the beginnings of black layer. The small of sulfur was evident when digging.

USGA Visit

Yesterday was my annual USGA visit. Stan Zontek was very happy to see many of the issues we discussed last year were improving, such as the poa annua populations on all playing surfaces. One of the areas we talked about in great detail was the natives areas. Over the years for whatever reason, many areas on the golf course have been let to go "Native." Examples of these areas are the rough between 7 & 8 and the area around the 10 Fazio tee. These areas were never intended to be native areas, they were originally designed and seeded to be primary rough. Now they undoubtably look horrible. He and I, while touring the course, cataloged many of these areas so that I can begin to return these to primary rough.

We will begin mowing these areas down. Once mowed down with a larger brush hog, these areas will be put back into our weekly primary rough mowing schedule. These areas will need herbicide treatments and some seeding before they will look like the rest of our rough.

We discussed several other issues during Stan's visit, green firmness, bunkers, to name a few. Stan is hoping to have his report completed for our BOA meeting on the 24th.

Course update 9/13

We received another .3" of rain yesterday. The course is saturated! We
were forced to mow the greens today as it has been two days since we
have been able to do so. We also rolled. Greens 10,11 and 14 will be
handmowed because of how wet they continue to be. These will not be
rolled. Greens will again be slower than what we are used to because of the rain.

Our greens are a USGA spec and do drain very well, however the water
needs some where to drain. This would either be through the drain tile
or simple through the subgrade. Our problem is that everything is
saturated and the water leaving the greens has no where to go. Water
tables are also extremely high.

William Brown, CGCS
Regional Agronomist

Pegasus Golf Management

Sent from my iPhone

10 Green

The back left of the 10th green is roped off this morning. This area is taking a beating because of the lack of drain functionality. There are three trunk lines that exit the green, one is in the back left. This line is either clogged or has been damaged from the tree that has fallen in the woods. We will be locating the blowouts for this trunk line on Monday and blowing the lines out. If this does not solve the problem, we will be exposing the trunk line just short of the hazard behind the green and allowing it to exit from there. The small area in the back will be sodded, the remainder of the green will be aerated with solid tines to help dry this green out..........It is Soaked!!!

Course setup following coastal storm

We are able to complete a full course setup today, however greens will not be mowed because of the amount rain we have recieved.

William Brown, CGCS
Regional Agronomist

Pegasus Golf Management

Sent from my iPhone

Bunker Renovation Update

With the remainder of the season extremely busy on the golf course, we have scheduled the renovation to begin November 2nd. I have been approached regarding the renovation and the various discussions that have taken place over the summer as to how the renovation will be completed. Our biggest issue is the liner migration. Once we have corrected the migration issue by removing the liners, the sands playability will improve. The process is as follows:

- Remove existing sand from the bunker and stock pile.

- Remove all liners and staples.

- Retamp base of bunker and add any clay to correct any bunker structural issues.

- Several bunker surrounds will then be resodded at this point.

- Add new sand to existing stock pile to ensure proper quantity and sift together. Sifting sand together will ensure there is no noticeable difference between the new and existing sands.

- Sand will them be placed back into the bunker at a depth of 2" of sand on the faces and 4" inches of sand on the base.

- Sand will them be rolled and tamped to ensure proper compaction.

Yearly ryegrass seeding

As I stated upon arriving, one of the biggest issues at Hartefeld is the Poa annua population. I have communicated over the last 18 months our strategy for the erradication of the poa annua. We are beginning today our yearly seeding of the fairways to help increase our ryegrass populations. We will also be seeding some small areas in the first cut around the greens where we have erradicated the poa annua. Included, is a photo of an example of an area where our poa erradication with Trimmit has been extremely successful. We will continue our seeding over the next 14 days, weather permitting.

12 greenside first cut

In my previous post I mentioned our seeding into areas where we have
successfully eradicated poa annua. On the 12th hole because of it's
importance, we will be sodding out between today and tomorrow.

William Brown, CGCS
Regional Agronomist

Pegasus Golf Management

Sent from my iPhone

14 greenside bunker

The sod has recovered enough from it's initial damage last Friday(see
previous post) so we are beginning to install on the course. The area
between the collar and the bunker on 14(see photo) will be resooded
during the bunker project. We are just patching in bentgrass where the
collar has struggled.

Spot sodding of collar on 14 and 10

We will be sodding out a few spots on the collars of the 10th and 14th green surrounds tomorrow, weather permitting. Our plan was to have these areas completed prior to the labor day weekend, but we had an issue with the range ball picker causing some damage to our new sod nursery. I had to allow the sod to heal prior to putting it on the golf course. These are the areas I discussed in a previous post that were damaged during the aerification process. Most of the areas have healed with the exception of a few, these will be repaired.