Secondary Rough Seeding

We have been very pleased with germination of the Hard Fescue that has been seeded thus far. In an upcoming post I will discuss what can be expected in terms of results for the next 1-3 years. For now I'd like to give some insight into how the seeding is actually done.

Most of the secondary rough is on steep hills and requires an enormous amount of hand work to prep and seed. Therefore we obtained a machine that can do most of this work for us in an efficient and safe manner. It is called a Ventrac and has a seeder/aeravator attachment.

The machine has 8 tires and sits low to the ground. The spikes on the aeravator vibrate when lowered into the ground providing a nice seedbed. At the same time that the aeravator is working, seed is dropping from the seed box on top working it's way into the soil.

While there are still some areas that need to be done by hand, the majority of the work is done with this machine making it a much more efficient process.

Weekly Schedule for October 6-12, 2014

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

-Prepping/seeding Fine Fescue in Secondary Roughs
-Turf Type Tall Fescue seeding in green surrounds
-Repair of rock walls around #13 tees
-Sodding of fairway entrances on #5
-Repair of irrigation leak at #15 green surround

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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.