Growth

Well, we are still a little less than a month from the Marathon Classic and I am very pleased with our recovery thus far.  Much of the seed we planted has germinated and begun to fill in nicely, and the existing bentgrass is filling many of the patches in on it's own.  More fertilizer and helpful chemicals are being applied today which will really help to keep things growing.

Look at the neat rows of emerging bentgrass seedlings filling in the spectator crosswalk on #10 fairway.

Another traffic patch on #9 fairway with lots of nice seedlings coming up.

 As this growth progresses in the fairways, we are going to begin repairing some of the areas in the rough that were damaged during the tournament as well as some of the bird baths from the monsoon season just before.  We will start around #2 green, #1 green, and #18 green where traffic and disease demolished some of our heavy bentgrass and poa annua rough.

Again, thank you for your patience while we get things put back together.

Progress

With Mother Nature cooperating, we were able to make a little headway on getting the course back in shape.  Liquid fertilizer applications to the fairways have initiated a nice growth and color response from the fairways, and the sod placed over the last week or two is knitting in nicely.

Also, we have scarified and seeded several of the areas thinned by the absence of Poa annua.  While I would love to have enough staff and sod to cover all of the damaged areas, it is economically and realistically necessary to try some seed in some of the areas.  This week #1, #10, #9, and most of the front nine were verticut, seeded and watered in hopes of getting some bentgrass re-established in the voids left by the deceased Poa annua.

First, we went through the areas with these verticutters to remove some of the dead "mat" to help with seed-soil contact.

The verticutters leave a nice set of grooves that we hope to get some seed into.

Using a drop spreader, bentgrass seed is spread over the surface

 We will continue to seed and sod over the next couple of weeks.  Mid-late August is the "sweet spot" for getting new seed and sod to set before the Poa annua in our soil starts to germinate.  Our goal is to get as much of the damaged areas to come back as bentgrass as soon as possible.  The more bent we get the less Poa will have a chance to re-invade.

There are things you can do to help us to maximize our success.  First, please try to avoid driving or even walking on any areas marked under repair.  Most of these areas have seed in them and the less we can disturb them the better.  Also, please be patient with us while we water.  In order to have any success, we will be running sprinklers during the day to keep seed and sod wet.  We will use hoses whenever feasible, but with so many areas to maintain, the sprinklers will give us better success.

Again, I thank you for your patience.  With a little luck, we should have things back to the great fairways you expect in a few weeks.

Sprinklers will be running during the day  for very brief periods to keep the seed wet.  

Stay out of the GUR as best you can.  It will help us with recovery.