Links News
by Tom Lipscomb, Director of Argonomy
Next season, I would like us to consider spraying to kill the Poa-annua in the fairways early in the summer, as we did this year on the Teeing surfaces. The Poa-annua comes in with the grass seed that is used for winter overseeding. I can tell you that it does not matter what seed is used for overseeding, it is impossible for the seed production fields to keep 100% of the Poa seed out! Winter Overseeding Preparation: Speaking of the winter overseeding, we have started our first of many spray applications to the areas that will be overseeded. These applications will continue on until the last week of September and are very important to the success of winter overseeding. We will put all of the dates up on the mobile app under the Club Calendar, but we also ask that you contact the Golf Shop in advance to inquire about any shut downs. We will do our best to keep you informed of any closures, in advance. Rough: We tried something new by mowing three distinct levels of rough. It ended up not working out the way we hoped, so we are now back to just two levels of rough height and a much more pleasing and enjoyable course to play. Thank you for your patience during this two-week period and thank you to those who gave me their feed- back. I do believe that if we were able to get at least two cuts a week on all the different rough heights it would have looked much nicer. So don’t go out and stock up on golf balls, you should now be able to find the ball you teed off with. One last note concerning the Rough; we do not (or at least try not to) cut grass once the day time temperature reaches the one-hundred-degree mark. This can be very detrimental to the health of the turf. As a result, we lose eight hours a day of rough mowing… (4) rough mowers with two less hours of mowing every time it hits one-hundred degrees = 8 hours less a day of mowing. I promise to have the rough back to a more enjoyable height quickly!
I hope that everyone has had a great summer. I wanted to take some time to give you a few quick notes about the golf course.
Weed Control: I believe we are finally making head-way on our weed reduction program. When I arrived at Seven Oaks, I was surprised to find the weed population was running rampant! It has taken three solid years of persistent weed spraying to finally see the fruits of our labor. This does not mean we are completely weed free, but it does mean we now have more grass than weeds. I am happy thus far with our weed reduction program, but we are still a way off, from my personal standards. But don’t worry… we will get there! Fraze Mowing on the Oaks Nine Fairways: The Fraze mowing went well and the fairways are healing back nicely. This type of maintenance, as with the other eighteen fairways, is way overdue. Dethatching the fairways should have been a regular practice to ensure the best possible playing surfaces, but unfortunately it was not. As a result, we had to resort to extensive Fraze mowing. It was an EYE OPENER to see the amount of thatch removed from these nine fairways. I want to APPOLOGIZE to those members that I told that 100 roll-off dumpsters of thatch were removed; I misunderstood what was told to me. The true number was closer to fifty and not one hundred. Either way, it’s still a freak load!!! I’m sure that everyone will agree that the Oaks fairways recovered extremely fast and are outstanding to play on. I hope that you are enjoying the result of the work that was done. ‘Thin’ Areas & ‘Voids’ : We are and will continue to sod thin areas on the golf course, noted by the amount of sod removed from our nursery behind #6 Lakes green. At the same time, areas in the fairways where Poa-annua has died and left voids have been Verti-Cut and sanded and extra fertilizer has been applied. We are happy to see that these areas are recovering well.
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