Smooth Greens

Verticutting the 13th Green

It's been a little over two weeks since the greens were aerified and heavily topdressed. (250,000 pounds!)The greens have pretty well healed, so it's now time to start getting them smoothed out. Today we verticut them. We will verticut them again this Friday, next Monday and next Friday. The greens should get progressively smoother and faster with each verticutting.

Golfers Only When Play In Progress

The stenciled signs on the cartpaths, reminding walkers to stay off the golf course whenever there are golfers on the course, were recently given a fresh coat of paint.

Drinking Fountains

Drinking Fountain at Driving Range

Last week the tile accents were added to the drinking fountains

USGA Report on the Greens, Part 7

                   

                        Aerifying Holes in Green

      This week we look at part 7 of USGA agronomist, Pat Gross’ December 2010 report on the greens at the Villages. This week Pat's report addresses the possible future rebuilding of the greens. 

DO THE GREENS NEED TO BE REBUILT? The greens are sustainable and appear to perform at an acceptable level throughout the year as long as conservative management programs for mowing, disease control, and the use of potable water for irrigation are implemented. Although the greens cannot be managed intensively to produce fast green speeds on a regular basis, the existing architecture and moderate green speed appear to be acceptable for most golfers. From an agronomic perspective, the greens are sustainable but not built for performance. As part of your long-range planning efforts, some consideration should be given to carefully evaluating the status of the subsurface drains in the greens and the potential that recycled water could someday be used for irrigating greens.

Firming up the Greens

Removing Thatch from the Putting Green with a 'Graden' Verticutter

Thanks to everyone who came out to our second demonstration of the year. The 'Graden' heavy duty verticutter is a relatively new piece of equipment on the market. The machine slices 1" to 1 1/2" deep, removing a tremendous amount of thatch (old dead roots) from the green. At the same time, the machine fills these slits with sand. High levels of thatch contribute to soft, spongy greens. Removing this thatch and replacing it with sand greatly increases the firmness of the greens. 

Greens Aerification April 11, 12 and 13.

Just a reminder that we will be aerifying the greens next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday, April 11th: Aerifying front-9 greens. Front-9 will be CLOSED. Tuesday, April 12th: Aerifying Back-9 greens. 18 hole course will be CLOSED. Wednesday, April 13th: Aerifying Par-3 Course. Par-3 Course will be CLOSED.

Aerifying greens

Raptors of the Villages G & CC

Red-shouldered hawks usually inhabit mature deciduous or mixed deciduous-conifer forests and swamps. They build their nests 20 to 60 feet above the ground in the branches of deciduous trees in wet woodland areas. They prefer to have dead trees nearby, where they can perch and enjoy an unobstructed view of the forest floor.

Meet the Team

Miguel

Miguel has been working on the golf course since 1992. Besides all the regular maintenance jobs on the course, Miguel is also our Construction Forman.