Graden/Aerification Completion

        Our spring time aerification out on the course has come to completion, as we now wait for it all to recover. First off, I want to thank everybody for their patience throughout these past couple weeks as we went through these processes out on the course. Our staff did an incredible job in order to make everything run as smoothly as possible. We are very pleased with the outcome of the course after these couple weeks.
       
        As most of you have seen, we used our sand inject Graden on our greens this time around. This is a very aggressive process to our greens, but the benefits of doing it are great. We are able to remove around 15% of our surface area and directly inject sand to replace that 15% into our soil profile. Having that sand in the upper layer of our soil helps us dilute the amount of organic matter, which leads to increased water infiltration, air exchange, and improves our nutrient dispersion throughout the green. It also decreases disease/insect pressure and localized dry spots. The amount of sand (65-70 tons) instantly firms up our greens, and also will result in more of a consistent "true-roll."

        
        Dustin, Jon, and myself brainstormed weeks prior to prepare for the Graden. This was only the second time around using this on our greens. We were able to come up with a pretty good set up to make this process run as smoothly as possible for our guys. 

         There was a station at our maintenance shop to fill up to 200 sand bags using our Propass top-dresser. Those sand bags were loaded onto trailers, which were then transported out to the greens. The sand bags were then placed out onto the green in line with the direction of the Graden.

        We had two guys follow directly behind the machine with push shovels pushing all the removed debris to the collars, where it was picked up into carts to dump. Making sure the green was clean after each pass was important to help line up the next pass.

Following the completion of the Graden, we then dragged the green with a brush and Coco Mat to help work in the sand a little bit more. Granular fertilizer and gypsum was then applied, followed by some irrigation. 

All 20 of our greens were completed (2 passes on each) after 3 ½ days of this process.

        With the amount of work this does to the greens, the recovery process takes a little bit more time than our normal aerification. Weather plays a significant part to having a speedy recovery. We have unfortunately not had great weather to help give us growth potential in our greens. The greens have received both granular and foliar fertilizer applications to help aid the recovery. We now have to wait it out until the greens are able to heal up. Once we feel they have fully recovered from the Graden process, we can start working our greens back to tournament form for the season.

        The sand inject Graden is a rare piece of equipment in our industry that I consider a luxury for the club to own. We plan on continuing to use it once every three years. If we are able to keep on that trend, we will be ahead of the game in controlling organic matter in our green's profile.

        If you have any questions, comments or would like to talk more about the process, please feel free to contact us and we would be more than happy to help.

- Nick Reyes, Assistant Superintendent 

Finding the Balance

     The trick is to find the balance. Everything seems to have a balance and finding that is the key to success. Whether it is soil fertility, the timing of various pesticide applications, how much water we put out on the course, golf course play-ability factors, how we deal with our respective crews, and our work vs. home life all have to be balanced with the objectives of what we are trying to accomplish. Experience is the key to understanding the intricacies of balancing the job and there is nothing more valuable than first hand experience to guide the way.

     Through this blog we hope to shed light on the intricacies of what we do as golf course maintenance professionals with the hope of educating and communicating to our audience why and how we do the things we do. We feel very fortunate to be stewards of this great property and hope to create this as part of a legacy that we will leave in the hope that it is continued for years even after we are gone. 

-Dustin McIntosh, Golf Course Superintendent

Fountaingrove Golf & Athletic Club

     Fountaingrove Golf & Athletic Club is a private club that provides first class amenities to its members in a picturesque setting in the hills above Santa Rosa, Ca. The golf course is a Ted Robinson design which opened in 1985. The course has changed hands a few times through the years and at this time is the only course in Sonoma County to be held privately through its membership.

     The turf is predominantly Poa annua which thrives and is manipulated into a very fine playing surface. This course is a testament to the fact that Poa annua can produce high quality playing surfaces. The management philosophy for the property involves embracing this turf type and using its competitive advantage to our benefit.

     We operate year round with a medium sized crew ranging from sixteen to nineteen individuals including the superintendent, mechanic and assistants. We are also fortunate enough to have a crew dog, named Dixie the Catahoula, who was purchased by the club for the sole purpose of helping keep our local geese population off the golf course.

     The course is irrigated using well water and we do our part as stewards to conserve and apply the water in a responsible manner placing a high emphasis on spot watering. It is essential in these drought influenced times here in California that we utilize new technologies and are diligent in ensuring that everything we apply is of necessity. Our property has characteristically heavy clay soils which intensify the need to be attentive to the turf’s needs. It is extremely easy to become wet, and when we do, it takes a lot of time to dry out. Our goal here is to always present a firm and healthy playing surface for our membership.

     There is a slough of property specific nuances that we intend to shed light on here in future posts. This is truly a beautiful property that shines as one of Santa Rosa’s finest gems. 

-Dustin McIntosh, Golf Course Superintendent