Chipping Green

       Today we met with Blake Bickford of the Fazio Design Group to look at changes to our chipping green. Blake has been involved at Forest Creek since 1995 when he was the field representative for Fazio Design doing both Forest Creek South and Pinehurst Number 8.  Blake was the lead architect on the Forest Creek North construction.  The changes to the chipping green have been under consideration for a number of years.  It was reviewed by Tom Fazio during his last site visit several years ago.  The main concern has always been that the green was too small and the contours too severe for suitable practice shots. The decision was made to enlarge this green as part of a conversion to “miniverde” ultradwarf bermuda grass.  The green will be enlarged to around 5,000 square feet and the finished grade will be lowered approximately 18 inches.  The bermuda areas around the enlarged green will extend out further than they presently do. The top of the existing bunker will be lowered 2-3 feet.  Based upon how the shaping works out a second bunker might be added.  Unfortunately, we will be removing several nice long leaf pines to keep shade off of the new putting surface.  These new bermuda grasses require all day sun for success.

       Over the next several weeks this area will be “under construction”.  The likely timing of the grassing of this green is the middle of June.  Modern Turf is providing the “miniverde” bermuda grass free of charge so that our membership can see this process and experience the putting surface provided by this new grass.  Our grassing will be scheduled around the grassing at Quail Hollow and the grassing at Midpines.  Blake Bickford will return in a couple of weeks to review our finished grades before we sprig the bermuda grass. The grow in process will last most of the summer but we should have a completed green before Labor day.

Aerification

Aerification is now under way on the North golf course greens. We should finish the front nine today and will do the back nine tomorrow.  We had originally scheduled the South to be done this week but switched the dates between the South course and the North course because the overall quality of the South golf course is better right now. We often hear that whenever the greens are at their best that we then tear them up with aerification.  Actually, our dates are based on agronomic need and our experience of caring for these greens for eighteen years.  

We have found that by aerifying three times a year with quarter inch “quad-tines “ we are able to keep our greens healthy.  By using the smaller tines we are being  less disruptive to the putting surface than we would be if we used larger tines.  Because we are creating more holes we can add enough sand to maintain our thatch layer at the right balance between mineral and organic matter.  This is the balance that we are trying to create , a green with air columns to let the greens accept water, air columns that let the green breath and a mineral/ organic balance in the thatch layer that gives a healthy firm surface. The entire process involves using a core aerifier which pulls quarter inch plugs.  These plugs are then pushed to the outside of the green and removed to prevent contamination of the bentgrass with bermudagrass.  Each green is then topdressed with several tons of screened and washed sand.  That sand is then brushed and blown into the aerification holes and the greens are rolled and watered. The goal is to return to a smooth healthy putting surface as soon as possible.

Our greens aerifications are generally scheduled around the first of March, the first of June, and the first of September.  We also try to separate the aerification of  the two courses by two weeks so that one golf course  has “healed” from aerification before we do the other course.  We also try and coordinate our aerification dates around club events and tournaments.

We are doing something different this summer with aerification of our fairways. Beginning in July we will close nine holes of our golf courses at a time for intensive aerification of the fairways.  This will allow us to “punch” multiple holes and follow that with aggressive verticutting. The goal is healthier, less thathchy fairways that will be smoother and firmer.  During this time there will generalyl be only 27 holes available for play.