{"id":490,"date":"2016-04-21T13:40:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T19:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/?p=490"},"modified":"2016-04-21T13:40:34","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T19:40:34","slug":"golf-course-care-refresher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/?p=490","title":{"rendered":"Golf Course Care Refresher"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the beginning of the 2016 golf season underway, I wanted to give you some information that will help our department with keeping Midland Hill’s golf course and driving range in great shape. Our department strives towards providing excellent conditions on a daily basis but there are some things that you can do to make\u00a0an important impact. An impact that compounds as the season goes on that will show positive results that you and your guests will surely notice.<\/p>\n

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Driving Range Practice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that we are hitting balls from the grass tee, there is one crucial practice aspect that has a huge impact on the divot regrowth from shots. If you watch professional golf on the weekends, often they show players hitting shots on the driving range tee. Often you’ll see their divot pattern, which looks like a large patch, where they take all of the turf.\u00a0in a box shape\u00a0The picture below shows that “patch” in the upper right corner. Look directly below\u00a0it (2 weeks later) and you’ll see the turf has yet to recover. This is because of several reasons. First, turf always<\/strong> generates quicker through regenerative abilities. With the patch, it has to grow from the outside in, 8″ wide\u00a0x 12″ long. This takes a long time. Also, with a bare spot that large, when the mower head goes over that area, often times the head dips down into the patch and scalps out any new seedlings that have germinated (this also does damage to the cutting reels as they dull when mowing up sand). If you look to the upper left corner, you’ll see the preferred divot pattern which is in lines with a few inches of turf in between them. Now the turf only has to grow a few inches to cover the divots, the mower heads don’t dip in as there is turf to help hold it up and the mowers stay sharp. The bottom two pictures\u00a0show a fairly significant\u00a0difference in recovery. Throughout the golf season if the tee can regenerate quicker, you’ll be left with a better practice facility. Also over time, taking patches out of the tee will make the tee box\u00a0un-level as they never\u00a0regenerate to a completely flat surface.\u00a0So\u00a0don’t<\/strong> do like the professionals you see on\u00a0TV on the\u00a0weekends as\u00a0they go from course to course, week to week and aren’t concerned what the range looks like come August after a season of practice.<\/p>\n

\"Divot<\/p>\n

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Divots<\/strong><\/p>\n

I often get asked about divots. Should I replace them or should I use the sand\/seed mix? It’s always<\/strong> best to replace your divot and step on it. Unless the divot is thinner than a piece of toast, the chance of that divot recovering and re-rooting to normal turf is much better than the divot mix germinating and filling it. Do you replace your divots on par 3s?\u00a0 We rarely<\/strong> see players do it, not sure if it’s out of habit but a tee box is no different from a fairway. If you can’t find your divot, then please do fill it with seed\/soil mix. If you do fill it, please do not <\/strong>overfill it. Our mowers will only vacuum it up and become dull. Also, never fill a divot that is not in the fairway or on a tee. The seed is designed for short grass areas only and not meant for the roughs.<\/p>\n

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Ballmarks<\/strong><\/p>\n

No one likes to putt over an\u00a0unrepaired\u00a0ballmark. If not repaired within a few hours, a ballmark can last up to several weeks<\/strong> as a brown depression on a green! They only take a few seconds to repair and fortunately for Midland,\u00a0I see several players fix theirs and a few more. Again, I’m going to pick on golf professionals you see on TV (sorry Hanford!). Unfortunately they repair them the wrong way! If you look at the diagram below, if you use your tool to “pull up” the turf, you only tear the roots\u00a0of the turf. Sure you’ll walk away from it and it will be smooth. A few days later it will start to die, turn brown, and create a depression. It’s almost worse fixing them this way than doing nothing at all. Always push inward from the outside of the ballmark, you can even twist a little at the same time to help push the surround turf to the middle of the ballmark. This will prevent tearing roots and you’ll be left with smoother and more consistent\u00a0playing greens.<\/p>\n

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\"Proper<\/p>\n

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Some interesting stats that you might not have thought about on how unrepaired or improperly repaired ballmarks have an effect on your round and how your greens play\/look:<\/p>\n