Tru-turf greens roller

I've had a demo of a tru-turf greens roller for a few days which has improved the greens smoothness from 7 out 10 to 9 out 10 & used more often could get 10 out 10 & maintain it through the playing season.
Also green speed measured with stimp meter showed green not cut running at 8'2" then rolled increased to 9'6"  then green cut was measured 9'8" then rolled measured at 11'5"  this measurement was on one green.

Greens

I had no irrigation for the last 6 weeks & with the the weather we have over the last six weeks, greens were needing a bit of water. 

 Now we have had pump fix all that's left to do is replace some decoders & sprinklers which are not rotating but the greens are looking good even though they have had hardly any water. 

 The system is old & with it lots of bits in the water (silt) which wears moving parts over time needs to be replace over time sprinklers heads, pump blades. 

Height of cut

Here I'm looking through my prism gauge to see the actual height we are cutting at, I bench set units at 2.60mm.

 As you can see in the picture is a uniform cut but height is 2mm & with stimp meter  which measure how the greens are running slow 4.5 feet, medium 6.5 feet, fast 8.5 feet, speed is not the main factor but majority of golfers prefer fast greens,  the main reason for stimp reading greens is getting consistency through all greens, not only stimp meter for how the greens are running but also for smoothness. 

Top dressing greens

I've been top dressing greens, I scarified greens first to get rid of lateral growth, remove dead matter, remove any seed heads if any are present but help top dressing get in around crown, holding grass up more vertical & today's top dressing will become root zone of the future after the top dressing i will brush & drag mat sand into grass sward, I will be doing this on a regular basis of 3-4 weeks doing this will help with smoothness & improve root zone over time. 

Smoothness test

Here I'm checking the smoothness out of 10 so I will do this over 3 greens & take an average, this will help with knowing how the greens are running so 1 extremely poor, 10 excellent

2nd bunker

I have put sand into it now & it's looking good as you can see the walkway between bunker and were I'm standing was turfed is also coming on nicely.

Toro units

I have started to strip down regrind cylinder & replace worn out bottom blade with new one, replace any bolts that are worn, & I have replace bushes which I have made new ones up ready to go onto units. Not only bushes I've made up but I have also made some scraper bars the toro never had any so making bars up & fitting them took a bit longer but worth it.

Path at 16th

Path at 16th looking from fairway back to tee now been done with 3/4 to dust just requires a roll but that be done when conditions are dry enough.

Greens units

Here I checking to see if unit is cutting paper this is single piece of paper place into between bed-knife & cylinder, I turn the cylinder making sure it turns easy and there is no contact with the bed knife, which means less friction, less effort on engine saving fuel, but to maintain this requires regular backlaping little but often is how I like to do it which would maintain cutting edge, disadvantage it's wears the bed-knife out requiring replace through the season.

Digging holes

We are digging holes were water has been sitting & that has damaged the turf, so we are digging through the clay layer & getting into free drain soil I'm hoping this will help dry up these areas but when water levels are high water won't drain away. we are digging down to a depth of about 6ft or more then we be filling them up with drainage material. We then turf them when done so have put a slab on top just for safety.

3rd path

The path washed away after flooding so we have filled it up with rubble then top of with shells, which I trying out

2nd bunker

Before I start this bunker we were repairing walk way between 2nd & 16th green I lifted damage turf up found the drain that was 3/4 full of silt, clear as much of silt out as possible then fill up the hole with 10mm stone up to the soil surface, before we turf it I used the sand from the 2nd bunker as it was washed out & contaminated with silt, got me thinking while I was here to save a bit of money & improve the look of the bunker I revetted the bunker so I don't have to fill up with as much sand saving money and if sand is washed away it's not as much cost to top up again,

Drain back 16th green

The drain that connects the two ditches at 2nd to 13th which runs behind 16th green, is choked with silt so i dug a section out to try and clean out as much silt as possible using the water pump & hoses this has help but not all of the silt is out we require a drain jet which would do the job.

Turf damaged areas

I have dug turf up which is very wet, as you can see the soil underneath the turf is dry, firm which is mainly clay which goes to a depth to about 2 foot, so I dug through the clay into free draining soil which is below the clay & found the water table as you can see water.
Once this was done filled holes up with 10mm stone right up to the surface followed with sharp sand level out & turf over ready for the season.

GREENKEEPER INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE

February issue of GI is out and they have feature my blog in Greenkeeper international (GI). This may be a good time to point out that I'm dyslexic & that there will be quite a few errors in my grammar & spelling but you will get the drift.

Mat back 1st tee

I've have dug in a mat put 10mm stone round it, as you can see I put post in sunk them in 3 feet into the ground, so we can put up an take down the net much easier, the net will be put up nearer the season but it a much stronger frame, so should handle the stronger winds.

Wear & tear

The digger has done a lot of work so the parts have just worn out & is requiring new parts, but once they are replace the digger be back in action.

Regrind

While the staff out on the course, I'm in shed starting on striping down units & regrinding units & replace any bearings.

New year

Back to work & was face with the damage left behind by the floods so I've been round the course looking at bunkers, paths, bridges, trees & ditches we have been lucky as it could have been a lot worse, now we have clean up to do as well as trying to keep on top course maintenance (aeration,slitting,spiking) we are hand cutting greens & tees, keeping traffic movement to a minimum because of the soft ground conditions but unfortunately we have to travel round the course to get things done lesser of two evils.
Some of the bunkers we have sand washed out of the bunkers, the sand that is left in bunkers has been contaminated with silt which has given a dark look.
Some paths have been wash away but we fill them back in, some we will do away with completely depending on time.
Bridges crossing the ugie has lots of debris on them but no undermining of banks where the bridges cross, they are just requiring a lick of paint so this be done later.
There is a lot of debris & slit on the course but we be picking this up shortly.

Course flooded