Greens Speed

With the ups and downs we have experienced this spring in regards to temperature and weather in general, greens have been running very fast. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your preferred greens speed, the greens will seem to be slowER over the next few weeks. With the latest extended warm up, soil temps have risen to a point where the bentgrass and poa are both greening up together and will start to grow more on a day to day basis. Our goal day to day is to have stimp reading of between 11-12. Last week with little growth we were at or approaching almost 13 on the stimpmeter. Again, conditions were optimal to achieve the speeds we were at. This is not very sustainable on a day to day basis, but can be achieved with extra mows and rolls for tournaments and other events. There are other cultural practices that we use such as topdressing, verticutting, height of cut and plant growth regulators that we use to try and provide the best greens that are true but also sustainable for the entire season. 

   

Bunker Rake Placement Change

Photo courtesy of Tim Kirk.

The grounds committee has unanimously decided to make a change to the placement of bunker rakes around our bunkers. We ask that after you rake bunkers to place the rake back on the outside of the bunker.  The decision was made due to concerns of balls coming to rest against the rakes on the downslope of the grass, and in the bunker itself, not allowing the ball to roll to a spot that was playable. If you keep the rakes on the outside away from greens and fairways, it is less likely that the rakes will come into play.