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Results from September 17th Seeding

We are seeing a great amount of germination from our seeding on September 17th:

Blog Update 9.17.14

As the area inside the red box in this photo shows there is seed in just about every hole.

We have creeping bentgrass on our greens. This seed will "creep" laterally as it is a stoloniferous grass that will quickly grow over the holes.

Weekly Schedule for September 29-October 5, 2014

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

-Very light topdress of greens on Tuesday morning
-Secondary rough cleaning and seeding
-Turf Type Tall Fescue seeding/sodding in selected primary rough areas

Update on September 25th @ 7:45 am

We've had a nice steady rain overnight and into this morning. So far only very small washouts where we have seeded into the secondary roughs with hard fescue. On hole #3 we have seen germination in 7 days which is pretty remarkable as hard fescue generally takes longer.

Will be updating the blog in the next few days describing the seeding process itself.

Natives, Fine Fescue Areas, Out of Play Areas and Secondary Rough

As we are well on our way of seeding these large bare areas throughout the golf course I thought it would be good to step back and define exactly what they are called. The most common name I hear is "Native Areas". This is a name that to me makes it sound as if these areas have little to no maintenance done to them. In fact, as can be observed from the past year these areas require intense maintenance. The links courses of Scotland and Ireland and even on Long Island in New York have an ideal setting for the long, wispy Fine Fescues that many of us see while watch the British Open. The soil and climate make it optimal for these grasses to grow with little to no input. The soil and site conditions at Fieldstone Golf Club make it anything but optimal to grow these grasses here. Therefore, I would like to get away from calling them "Native Areas".

The grasses seen at the links courses in Ireland, Scotland and some of the classic courses throughout the United States are actually from a group of fine leaved grasses called Fine Fescue. Within this group are creeping red fescue, chewings fescue, hard fescue and sheep fescue. Sometimes a mix of these grasses are used and other times only one. Each having specific characteristics. Since our primary rough includes Turf Type Tall Fescue, Ryegrass and Kentucky Bluegrass which contrasts what we are seeding it is fair to call these newly seeded spaces "Fine Fescue areas".

Since the areas that we are seeding are generally not in the line of normal play they may be referred to "Out of Play Areas". However, judging from the amount of golf balls found while prepping for seed I would not say they are out of play at all.

Finally, a term I feel most describes what we are trying to do is "Secondary Roughs".

In this picture the Primary Rough, made up of Turf Type Tall Fescue, Ryegrass and Kentucky Bluegrass is in the foreground while the secondary rough, which is taller, is in the background.

This is an ideal look for us and one that we are tying to achieve.

In the next blog post I will describe how we get from what we have now to what is in the above picture throughout the golf course.

Weekly Schedule for September 22-28, 2014

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

-Cross tine, topdress and apply Gypsum to greens on Monday
-Seed and clean areas for Fine Fescue

#3 Fine Fescue Seeding

Green side of #3 has been seeded with Fine Fescue. Please stay off this area for the time being.

Look for a series of blog posts in the near future detailing our seeding process and what to expect.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014 Update

We are aerifying small areas on greens and collars this morning.

The depth of the aerifier is set to a very shallow 1/4"

We are going shallow because we are seeding these areas to promote some regrowth. The seed is mixed with sand, brushed then watered in.

As I marked the areas to be done this morning I observed that the location of the majority of these areas are located where there is morning shade and/or have high compaction from foot traffic going on/off the greens in the same area.

Weekly Schedule for September 15-21, 2014

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

-Fine Fescue area seed prep and seeding. Starting on hole #3
-Seed thin areas on greens (mostly edges on a few greens)

Seed Germination on #7

We've had really good germination and growth with the Turf Type Tall Fescue seed on #7.

At seeding:

12 days afterwards:

Weekly Schedule for September 8-14, 2014

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule

-Sod small areas on #5 blue tee and #17 approach
-Seed select areas in the rough
-Apply different anti-skid material to #3 stairs from what was applied to #7 stairs last week to determine which works better
-Begin seeding Fine Fescue on hole #3

Weekly Schedule for September 1-7, 2014

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

-Topdress greens on Tuesday
-Verticut select tees on Wednesday
-Seed or sod select areas in rough
-Apply anti-skid sealer to #7 stairs