I can only think of one word to sum up the Nicklaus closure for aerification…Wet. During the eleven days of closure, we have experience 9 rain events totaling over 8 inches of rain, including one event that exceeded 5 inches in a couple of hours. This has not only slowed the progress of preforming the projects, but also added 100’s of man hours not anticipated during the closure. While we have been able to complete 99% of the tasks planned, many were not accomplished until late this week, which pushes our recovery time a week behind schedule. The following outlines several of the tasks completed.
The greens were verti-cut in two directions to help with the removal of grain and thatch build up from the summer months. This machine slices the grass vertically instead of cutting it horizontally as a typical mower. This results in a denser and tighter quality of cut going forward. This process was also performed to the fairways and tees. The greens were then aerified with a smaller tine than the spring aerification to help speed up the recovery time.
In addition to the vert-cutting of the fairways, a deep tine was performed to over 75% of the fairways. This is a solid tine that does not pull any cores, but penetrates the soil 10 inches deep. There will only be small marks left on the fairway from this process which will continue to heal over the next ten days. This is extremely beneficial as it helps promote root growth before the winter months arrive and helps to loosen the soil in high compaction areas.
Due to the high amounts of rainfall, extra cleaning in the fairways, bunkers and along the dunes was created. In the fairways, large collection areas of clippings from the verti-cutting the day of the storm needed cleaned by hand raking and vacuuming as to ensure plant health. The dunes washed sand out into the rough on more than one occasion which could only be shoveled by hand and placed back in its proper location quickly. If not, the sand would suffocate the grass causing large dead areas of grass.
Additional projects and maintenance items that were completed during the closure were as followed:
- Drainage along the cart path by the #3 tees was repaired
- Drainage was repaired in the #14 fairway
- Pre-emergent herbicide was applied to the driving range rough
- All bunkers were edged and depth adjusted to meet USGA specs.
- A granular fertilizer was applied to all fairways and tees
- Additional topdressing was added to the newly sodded Celebration in the fairways as well as all tees
- Several dead Pine Trees were removed from the rough on #10
The course will open as planned on Saturday, but will still need an additional 7 to 10 days to fully recover. We appreciate your patience as Mother Nature has dealt us a challenging hand, but we will be back to normal shortly.
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