Verticutting Collars & Approaches

The Tif-Eagle on the greens are not the only area that requires constant mechanical practices during the growing season. The Tif-Sport on the collars and approaches are being verticut this week and the Turf Brush is sent out on a weekly basis. This will help reduce grain, thatch and provide a better playing surface.

Hole #1

 

 

Finished product

Re-establishing Mow Lines

Our course architect, Bobby Weed was here at Spanish Oaks this week to paint out new or existing mow lines on the fairways, collars and approaches. Some were moved due to playability issues, shade stress from trees, high traffic from carts or the line needs to be re-established due to the mowers moving the line in or out over time. This is the best time of the year to accomplish this because the turf has just begun to grow and scalping will be minimal.

Club House Plants

There are an assortment of plants that we are planting in the pots around the club house today. We keep the native theme throughout the course and all of the property. Among the selection are Bougainvillea, Lantana, Gaura and Black Foot Daisy.

Sod, Round 2

This week we are laying 18 pallets of Tif-Sport sod throughout the course. Most of the work will be on #2 and #3 collars and fairways. These areas are contaminated with 419 and some common Bermuda. Over the years they have slowly grown, taking over large sections that now need to be replaced.

Tif-Sport sod

Removing contaminated turf

Installing new sod

Slicing the Roughs

To help alleviate compaction in the roughs due to cart traffic, we use a combination of slicing blades and hollow core tines. The turf is greening up, but not actively growing. So we are using the slicing blades, which helps short term to relieve compaction. Once the soil temperature is warm enough to promote growth, we will switch to the hollow tines. We will perform this throughout the year and it will greatly reduce compaction in these areas.

Sod!

On Monday we laid 10 pallets of Tif-Sport Bermuda throughout the course, which most of it ended up on #13 for the native to turf conversion. Other areas were soded due to worn traffic areas or from the last two years of the drought.

Final grade on #13

Tif-Sport Bermuda

#13

Prepping areas on #5

Down sizing a large mulch bed on #13

Mulch

March is our month to freshen up and re-establish the mulch beds throughout the course. In the next few weeks we will use up to 240 yards of Texas Native hardwood mulch. Our goal is to apply enough to provide adequate protection for the trees, while keeping it thin enough to produce a playable shot out of. The mulch beds are touched-up a few times throughout the year after this initial application.

#8 Drainage

For the last year we have had an area on the lower fairway of #8 that stays saturated almost all year. This is due to the area being lower and constantly in the shade from the large oaks trees to the south. To alleviate this, we are installing a small drain system to carry excess water away from the fairway.