Golf Course Update

The month of August has brought much needed rainfall to the Mediterra area. Half way through the month we have received between 7-10 inches of rain throughout the property. With the rainy season in full swing, the potential to add additional rainfall throughout the month is very good.

The month of July was a letdown in terms of rainfall. We received on average 4.08" of rainfall throughout the Mediterra property. This is 4" below average, and 8" lower than July 2008. The worst part about the July rain, was that there was a 3 week period where there was no rainfall. With our summer irrigation allotment, we really depend on the rainfall to keep all the turf and landscape healthy.

The North Golf Course re-opening was pushed one week, and resulted in an August 6th opening. This was due to the extreme dry conditions, as we wanted the turf better suited for traffice once re-opened. It worked out pretty good, as the rainfall returned and the end of July and has continued into August.

The South Course is on the third week of its 2nd closure. So far we have aerified greens, tees, and fairways. We are starting the aerification process today on the collars and approaches. This will be our last cultural practice of the summer on the South Course, and then all attention will be turned to prepare the golf course for season.

Golf Course Update

Weeks 3,4 and 5 of the North Course closure have come to an end. The past three weeks have been spent getting the golf course back in condition for opening. Due to the lack of rain in July, we have decided to push the North Course opening back until August 6th to give it proper time to recover from our maintenance practices. We anticipate opening the North Course in very good condition.

July started out very well in terms of rainfall, as we picked up almost 2 inches the first two days. From that point forward, it has been extremely dry. We have recorded an average of .40" of rain throughout the property since that time. During this time of year, we lose close to .25" of water in the soil per day through Evapotranspiration (ET). We really count on the summer rains to help push us through the hot weather, and to also replenish our lakes on property. The good news is that there are still a couple months remaining in the rainy season that could provide more than adequate rainfall.

North Course Closure - Week 1 & 2

The first two weeks of the North Course closure are of to a good start. We have successfully aerified greens and fairways. The picture above shows the machines we use during our greens aerification, the Toro ProCore 648. The machine is very smooth and capable of deeper aerification than Toro's previous walking aerator. This process helps us remove unwanted organic matter from the rootzone, and aids in deeper root development. I will do a more in-depth article regarding aeration and organic matter in the near future.



The fairways were aerated 2-3 different directions on the North Course this closure. The fairways that had the tendancy to dry out quicker, we aerated 3 times hoping to improve water infiltration and also build a stronger root system.

The 2nd week of the North Coure closure had us complete verticutting of the greens and tees. The greens are deeply verticut with a machine called Graden. The Graden helps us remove a portion of the thatch that has accumulated over the past season. A very necessary procedure to maintain high quality putting surfaces.

The verticutting of the tees is done for a similar reason as the greens. The bermudagrass found on the tees benefits greatly from verticutting. The surface gets denser and more upright from verticutting. This helps improve playability of the teeing surfaces, and also allows us to mow at lower heights of cut without fear of scalping the turf.

We finished the month of June with an average of 6.41" of rain around the Meditera property. For comparison, we received an average of 5.39" last year in June. We started July out nice with a 2" rain, and are hopeful for more on the way.

South Course Closure Weeks 4 & 5

The fourth and fifth weeks of the South Course closure brought the end of our maintenance practices, and the begginning of preparing the golf course for re-opening. We did have a couple practices to finish up, and they include aerification of the rough and pencil-tining of the greens.

Aerification of the rough helps provide relief from a season's worth of compaction from cart and machine traffic. The aerification helps provide water, air, and nutrients to the roots for improved plant growth. The picture below shows the #15 South after the rough had been aerified. The same machine that was used to aerify fairways is also used on the rough.

The pencil-tining of the greens involves using a solid-tine to poke small holes in the rootzone. This helped us smooth the greens out after both the aerification and verticutting that occured earlier in the closure. The holes from the process are very small, and that is where it received the name "pencil-tine." These holes will also serve as avenues for new root growth, oxygen exchange, and also help with water infiltration. Below are a couple pictures of this process.

Summer Update - South Course 3rd Week

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The third week of the South Course closure brought the completion of verticutting and aerifying the tees, collars, and approaches. Above you can see the machine that was used for the process of aerifying these areas. We had the machine set at 1" x 1" spacing, which pulls 144 cores per square foot. This process removes a lot of the dead and decaying material (thatch) that can produce so many negetives for both the turfgrass and also the golfers playing. The process of verticutting and aerifying also will help smooth the surfaces from the previous season.

The above pictures show a completed tee and also a close shot of the material being brought to the surface through the aerification process. These surfaces are normally back to normal within 7-10 days.

The above pictures show the process we use to drag the aerification cores back into the tees. We use a steel drag mat pulled my a utility vehicle. The steel mat separates the soil from the thatch, and the soil helps fill in the holes. The thatch, which can be seen on the upper right picture, is simply blown off with a blower.

The above pictures show the verticutting of the collars and approaches. We went over each area twice, really removing a lot of the thatch from these areas. Following the verticutting, the same aerification process that was completed on the tees was completed on the collars and approaches.

Overall, things are progressing very nicely. We continue to receive the normal afternoon rain here and there. Finished the month of May with almost 6" of rain average on the property.

Continue to check back for more updates.

Summer Update

We have started the 2nd week of the South Course closure, and things are progressing well. The first week we completed aerification of the greens and fairways. The second week we are concentrating on verticutting of greens and tees. Below you will find pictures of the verticutting we do to the greens each summer.

The maintenance practices that we complete each summer are necessary in order to provide exceptional playing surfaces. Bermudagrass is very well known for producing a lot of organic material called thatch. The failure to remove a portion of the thatch layer each year would result in undesireable playing conditions. Removing the thatch helps us produce a firmer golf course.

These practices normally take 1-2 weeks for recovery before we can start mowing again. Obviously, many of these practices wouldn't be performed without our 5 week closures during the summer. Having the closures really allows us to get the maximum out of each practices we complete.

We will continue updating our summer progress as each week passes by. I would also like to mention that we have received over 4 inches of rain in May, which is a good start to hopefully another good rainy season.