It has been an extremely busy past few months at Golf Course Maintenance as we have been working hard preparing for season and wrapping up our summer cultural practices.
In early August, we were almost fully recovered from our major aerification when a main line irrigation leak was observed underneath the road crossing between holes #13 and #14. The repair was extremely problematic and took 8 days to fully complete the repair. Unfortunately, we were left without irrigation water for 8 days in the heat of the summer while the system was shut down during the repair. I am incredibly thankful for my staff in persevering through the challenges and successfully executing the repair.
 |
| In the early stages of the repair, the existing pipe was removed from the 15" sleeve located underneath the road. |
 |
| The removal process of the existing pipe proved to be very challenging as there was not much room between the sleeve and the existing 10" pipe. Several different pieces of equipment were required to dislodge the pipe and remove it from the sleeve. |
 |
| Once the pipe was removed, a new 10" pipe was inserted into the sleeve and the appropriate fittings were installed. |
 |
| The repair consisted of many days working sun up to sun down. |
 |
| Once the new 10" pipe and fittiings were installed, the system was slowly repressurized and operational following an 8 day shut down. |
While we were fortunate not to have any long-term negative effects as a result of this leak, there have been several areas that suffered from the dry conditions needing some extra TLC, specifically in the fairways and greens. We have been diligent in our recovery efforts and these areas are slowly showing signs of new growth. We are confident that the golf course will be in pristine shape by early October.
 |
| It pains me to post a picture like this, but it is important to recognize the stress observed throughout the golf course without the appropriate irrigation. |
 |
| This photo was taken 25 days later. New growth has been observed and these areas are fully recovering. |
Our September, three-day-closure allowed us time to deep tine aerify all fairways with 3/4 solid tines. This allows for additional compaction relief and oxygen exchange at a depth of over 8 inches. During this closure we were also able to catch up on much needed trimming, edging and detail work.
 |
| All fairways were deep tined during our September closure. |
Additionally, on September 13th, we completed our annual Dryject application to all putting surfaces. Dryject is a technology that uses high pressure water to inject columns of clean sand into newly created aeration holes. The benefits of this process are compaction relief, an increase in water infiltration and percolation, and amending the organic layer of the rootzone with sand. Furthermore, this is an extremely non-invasive procedure that hardly affects playability.
 |
| The Dryject machine is loaded with kiln dried sand. Three machines in total were used. Each machine required three of our staff members to keep the hoppers full of sand at all times. |
 |
| #1 Green immediately following the Dryject procedure. |
 |
| #1 Green after rolling, dragging, and mowing. Picture was taken 24 hours after the photo above. |
 |
The Dryject process fractures the soil and inserts a column of sand into the soil profile diluting the organic layer and creating a healthy growing medium for new root growth.
|
