No more swamp on #3, well at least the worst spots are no longer an issue.  There is such a low spot in that area of the fairway there is no way to get rid of 100% but we are happy with the results and there is no longer a swamp in middle of fairway.  We used a product called "E-Z Drain", it is a corrugated pipe with slits in it to allow water in the pipe, surrounded by shipping peanuts and enclosed with a geo-textile fabric.  This product removes the need for a pea gravel layer and only needs to be backfilled with sand and topsoil.

Hopefully you can see the soil cores in the picture above, that's right we aerated the fairways about 3 weeks ago and everything went great.  The main reasons for doing this is to reduce compaction in the soil and increase and oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange in the root zone.   This should in turn help us to grow some roots in the fairways and allow us to have healthier turf going into summer.  Another added benefit is softer fairways for your golf ball to land on, obviously when conditions get droughty this will have little impact.  We are also verticutting fairways this week as well as liming.  Verticutting will help our fairway grass to grow in as it cuts stolons and rhizomes and instigates new growth.  Our soil samples I took in the fall recommended liming.  This will raise our pH to levels that are better for growing grass.  Lime is also a soil conditioner in that it flocculates soil particles, and loosens the soil.  These processes together should give us a better playing surface and looking forward to seeing the results!

 March is here and we are extremely busy at Golf Maintenance.  I thought I would post this picture of a green (not Wolf Laurel) with poa annua seed heads.  Poa annua is considered a weed, but at Wolf Laurel with our greens comprising more than 50% poa we maintain it,  as removal would be nearly impossible and expensive.  Poa Annua produces a flower (seed head ) in the spring, this uses up carbohydrate reserves in the roots and makes the plant more susceptible to drought and disease come summer.  It also creates a bumpy, uneven playing surface in spring.  Our job is to hopefully keep the plant from producing the ugly seed head by using plant growth regulators (PGR) and thus making a healthier plant this summer.  We just applied a combination of Primo (PGR) and Proxy (PGR/herbicide) to reduce the number of seed heads on our greens.  Timing is key with this process as you want to catch the seed head in the boot stage (before it emerges) and three applications two to three weeks apart are necessary.  75% control is the best case scenario with 60% being more realistic, but a process that is well worth the try.

The calm before the storm, beautiful today but tomorrow might be a different story.  National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning, and predicting anywhere from 6-12 inches of snow. Ski slopes should be good for awhile!

Wanted to update everyone that we have installed the golf lift in the maintenance facility and it is working great.  This will assist our mechanic (Robert) in maintaining the equipment.  Prior to having this we were having to use jacks and jack stands which is not too safe, as anybody walking by could accidentally hit the jack causing the machine to drop to floor and crush anything beneath it (Robert).  This also will speed up repairing or performing preventative maintenance.  We are very excited about it and will enjoy using it this year.