Follow up on Drain Lines

A few weeks back I put up a post about the drain lines.  Just as a follow up here is how they looked over the weekend.  These are the exact 3 lines in each picture.  

 

This week at the Links

Rockville Links is scheduled to begin the installation of internal drainage in 5, 8, and 10 green Wednesday April 24.  This process is usually about a day and a half per green.  So as long as weather holds up this should be a quick process that is completely wrapped up by early the following week. 

The new well on 2 should begin end of the week or early the following.  All that we are waiting on is the permit to arrive from the New York DEC.

Earlier this week the process of restocking fish in the pond began.  Added was a variety of Koi including a few Butterfly Koi.  Along with the Koi we added a few Red Comets and Shubunkins.  Soon we will be adding some aquatic plants and a variety of fish that will help control algae and mosquitoes.

Now that the pond has been cleaned we began a weekly maintenance program. 

Mya has been pitching in as well.  

New landscape area by the Oasis

Changes to #5

Last Thursday the crew completed the renovation to #5 Approach.  The approach was brought down the bank closer to the edge of the pond, and was tapered to meet the walk path.  The sod was cut from our nursery.  Over the weekend the sod started to root very well.  The area still will not be ready for play for weeks.  Try to avoid walking on the sod until the stakes surrounding the area are removed.   

Finished Product

The other huge change to 5 was the annual cleaning of the pond.  As you can see from the pictures there was a lot to clean out!  There was 8-12" of muck in the bottom.  Not many fish were found this year....not sure if that was from a complete freeze this winter, the stagnant water, or a combination of both.  In the next few days we will be adding more fish, and possibly some aquatic plants.    

Drain Lines

The look of the drain lines has been a huge topic around The Links this week.   The main problem is with the sandier mix the cold temps can reach deeper into the soil.  The drain lines didn't "Wake Up" as quickly as the rest of the greens.  So aeration last week followed by topdressing and dragging the sand really bruised the  drain lines.  

The pictures below are zoomed in image of the same drain line above.  As the picture shows most of the bruised turf is at the tip and the rest of the plant is very healthy!  

First cut is planned for tomorrow morning.  This cut should remove most of this ugly part of the leaf blade.

  

April USGA Green Section Updates

David A. Oatis, Director, Northeast Region      Spring is Busting Out All Over


Darin S. Bevard, Director, Mid-Atlantic Region    Maintenance Programs Already Require Compromise

Aeration

Aeration went great on Monday.  We were able to aerate Greens, Approaches, Fairways, and Walkpaths.  The only set back was some rain in the afternoon.  This pushed back some of the fairway cleanup on fairways till Tuesday.  We are about 95% cleaned up this morning.  There is a crew working though the course now ahead of any play checking for any plugs that may have been missed.

   

Greens came out great!  After working in topdressing and rolling in 2 directions they are much smoother. 

We are open again this morning with greens and carts.  Just keep in mind....overnight temps are in the 30's through the weekend.  So we will be opening for play in the 9:00 A.M. range.

Sunday March 31, 2013

These lines are a common sight around The Links right now.  It is from our new Verti-Quake machine.  The machine has knives that penetrate 8-10" deep and do an amazing job relieving compaction.  This will also help water infiltration so many of these areas will not stay saturated in season.

The bright green tufts of "grass" around 7 green are NOT Fescue plantings.  These are actually Wild Onion.      These are very problematic weeds, and the first application of herbicide was applied last Friday.  Follow up applications will be made in the upcoming weeks. 

Wild Onion