Driving Range Update

We have started stripping the front range tee today, and the contractors will be onsite Thursday morning to apply the new Celebration. We are still on schedule to reopen Friday morning on the mats. A majority of the plant material for the new wall should arrive tomorrow morning and will be planted during the afternoon. While this has been a long process in the making, I anticipate the new tee, plants, and all grassing areas to be complete by early next week.

Sprigging Oakridge Fairways

We started the sprigging process on Oakridge fairways this week, the video below shows the process being completed on #4 for those interested in seeing how it's done. Thus far we have sprigged fairways # 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7. We expect to be finished sprigging all 18 holes by early next week.

 

Greens Contamination / Encroachment Repair

One of the major issues we are dealing with in the turf industry, particularly in the southeastern united states, is the encroachment of undesirable bermudagrasses into the putting surface.  Modern turgrass management strategies used to provide consistenly fast greens speeds are exacerbating the problem and since there are no selective herbicides to remove an "off-type bermuda" from a bermudagrass greens, we are forced to physically remove the contaminant to resolve the issue.  Many in the industry are trying to find the best way to do this and the USGA wrote an interested article on a repair strategy that we are trying on Oakridge this year. 

The USGA has named this method the "collar plug method," because of the use of aerification plugs as the viable plant material used to grow in the area.  The process includes chemically eradicating the existing off-type using 2 separate herbicide applications.  The dead turf is then physically removed.  In the next step, we aerified the green and pushed the aerification plugs into the voids left from the removed turf at the collar.  The area will be leveled with greens mix sand, rolled and grown in to match the existing greens elevation.  the benefits of this method over traditional sod or sprigs is that the area contains more of a similar organic content to the green, making consistent maintenance easier.  Also, it tends to blend in quicker due to the grain of the grass matching the existing grain of the green.  And the biggest benefit, since you are supplying your own plant material (plugs), is that it's cheap.  The downside of this process is that it takes time, we expect these areas to grow-in over the next 6-8 weeks.  Fortunately for us, due to the nature of the Oakridge restoration, we have time to try this method.  The photo shows the process taking place on Oakridge's greens this week. 

Marshwood Update

Everything is going as planned throughout the project, and the new fairway grass is now taking hold. We did have an issue during the major downpour 2 weeks ago that washed 60% of the sprigs to the drains on holes 7 and 9. Our contractor is scheduled to re-sprig these holes next Monday morning. Bunker work is currently on #9 and the tree company will resume work as soon as the weather clears.