Next week the course will be closed from August 15th-17th for greens aerification. In years past this, practice has been done in late October. We moved aerification earlier for several reason. In August the greens are growing rapidly vs. the slower growth in October. Completing this practice now will allow the greens to heal rapidly. This will also mean no disruption to golf during the period of mid-October to Thanksgiving. Lastly, this is when poa annua is at its weakest and not germinating. When we aerate in the fall, the greens heal slowly which allows for poa annua to germinate in the open holes. Which ties into what is going on within the fairways. Our fairways are a mix of ryegrass, poa annua, and bentrgrass. Most of our fairways have become predominantly poa annua over the last 10-15 years. Poa annua is a shallow rooted winter annual grass that does not do well during high air and soil temperatures. Being shallow rooted it either dies or goes dormant during the summer months. This July and up until this week we endured warm daytime temperatures and nighttime temperatures that were well above 70. This also causes the soil temperature to remain higher than normal.
There are multiple factors that play into the fairways struggling in summer: lack of aerifications leading to compaction, no sand topdressings to address surface moisture and reduce thatch, single rider golf carts adding unnecessary wear and an aging irrigation system. Many improvements have been made to components of the irrigation system including over 150 new sprinkler heads installed this year. We have started seeding ryegrass into the worst areas of fairways last week for recovery. Last year we seeded low mow bluegrass on fairways 10 & 18. This will start again on other fairways this month as temperatures begin to cool to become more favorable for seeding. As you may remember we completed sodding the tee boxes and the top driving range tee to Santa Ana Bermuda grass last Summer. This hybrid Bermuda grass has done extremely well in this climate and has performed exceptionally well this summer. It certainly has felt like a long hot Summer. But this Fall we will enter will greens aerification already completed, cooler temperatures that will allow rapid recovery in fairways, and be able to enjoy better golfing conditions this October and November without having to worry about the greens being punched.
Thank You, Jason Conrad jconrad@winchestercountryclub.com
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Important Contact Info: Winchester Country Club Winchester HOA Winchester Security Meadow Vista Emergency Line (Fire, Police, Ambulance)
530.878.3000 530.878.3845 916.677.9243 530.823.4411
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