Record Low and Driving Range Aerification...

We set a record low temperature of 37 degrees this morning for this date, not exactly what we would have predicted for the middle of May. We know that warm humid weather will be here very soon, thus we decided to get started on an overdue aerification of the Driving Range. We were testing our equipment this morning during our maintenance hours on the Driving Range, which took a little longer than expected as there were a few kinks to work out. Everything is running fine now and we were able to aerify approximately 15% of the floor of the Driving Range. Once we aerified the area, we tried to drag the aerification cores to shatter them but unfortunately the clay was so compacted that we had to eventually use our Rough mower with mulching blades to chop of the cores. Finally we blew the excess clippings and thatch out of the area with our blowers and the area was open at 1:00 PM. We will continue to work on the range over the next few weeks during our maintenance time and we will make it a priority every year going forward to ensure a better product for our members and their guest.

Here is a picture of an area of turf prior to the aerification process.

This is a picture of the same area with our John Deere 1500 aerifying the turf. We used a 3/4" tine with a 2.5" x 2.5" spacing which should alleviate some of the compaction on the Driving Range.

The following picture shows the cores on the same area of turf that was in the original picture. The clay is easily seen and part of the issues in the compaction.

Here is our Rough mower mulching or aerification cores to help pulverise and ease the clean up process.

This is a picture of the initial area after being aerified, pulverized, and blown. We will continue this process over the next couple of weeks until the Driving Range is completed.

Finally, here is a picture taken from the White Tees on #3, a downhill then uphill dogleg left Par 5. The TifGrand bermuda grass on the Tee and as you can see from the clippings in the Rough, from our late afternoon mowing, the bermuda was has not been set back by the cold temperature the past few mornings.

Thank you for reading our blog and we hope that you gain some insight to the daily maintenance of Windermere Golf Club.