Well winter has finally shown its ugly face this year with nightly lows in the 20s and highs in the upper 40s to lower 50s. Most of this week we will probably be on the winter 9 since some of our greens do not ever thaw out completely. By not having play on the greens that are frozen most of the day helps the plant as a whole to be happy and healthy. This week we have started off very busy with projects such as the installation of the synthetic mat at the driving range. This will be utilized during outings, The Dogwood, inclement weather, and if the turf just needs a little TLC. The synthetic turf is a whole lot better than it use to be back 10 or so years ago.  We spent a lot of time picking out the perfect mat that closely resembles that of natural turf. The greenside bunkers on 5 are getting a little make over as we add two different types of sand to the both of them so we can decided which sand is the best fit for DHGC. Other than that we are just getting those two big projects out of our way so we can get on to the drainage projects in the fairways and wet areas throughout the course. Thanks again for taking the time to read our blog as well as our twitter.

Its been a while.

Hello all again! Its been a while since my last post and I apologize for that, but if you do want day to day updates please check out our twitter page. We have been really busy over the past couple of months cleaning up leaves, acorns , and pine cones. The bermuda is starting to check out and get back into dormancy in the rough and the fairways. The greens are looking good going into the winter, but #13 & 14 are still a little weak. We are pumping those two greens with a lot of fertilizer these past couple of weeks. They are looking a whole lot better than they did back in October. We are continuing to seed bare/weak areas on greens with the Job Savers (AKA little aerifiers) with the A1 variety bentgrass. I am going to try and post on here every week to keep everyone up to date on our projects going on at the course. Hope everyone has a great day!

The stump grinder was out yesterday putting in the hours.

We will be picking up all the piles of mulch during the week

 The bare/weak areas that we aerified and seeded on the putting green.

 We topdressed, fertilized, and watered greens for 6 mins. on Monday 12/7/15

Bunkers Completed !!!!

 The bunkers on 4 & 5 are now complete and ready for play! This project took a little bit longer than expected but they look awesome! These new bunkers are going to drain better and hold up to any kind of weather nature throws at them. I have put the pictures from start to finish on the bunkers below. We also installed Zorro Zoysia on #11 blue tee because the Bermuda grass was starting to slowly check out because of the shade. The Zoysia will thrive in that area and will look great once it tacks down.

 

 

 

 



Bunkers

Renovations 4 & 5



The bunkers on 4 & 5 have been stripped clean of all the sand, liner, drainage, and gravel. The grading process has started on 5 and it is looking great! Soon they will be installing new pipe, gravel, spray on liner and bunker sand. These bunkers are called The Better Billy bunker. It is the same style that we have on the chipping green bunker that is close to the cart path at the driving range. Instead of having a fabric type of liner it is a spray on liner that reassembles pavement like in a parking lot. This liner helps with wash outs, improves drainage, and keeps the sand at a good playing quality. This project will be completed before the Dogwood and the players will be able to hit out of the bunkers. The only thing that the Dogwood players will have to use a drop for on holes 4 & 5 will be where they had to sod around the bunkers and approach area. Those areas might be GUR ( Ground under repair) because the sod seems will most likely still be showing but the sod will be tacked down by that time. We will worry about whether it is GUR or not once the Dogwood has arrived.



Wasps in the bunkers

The wasps in the bunkers burrowing themselves in the sand are called sand wasps. The female sand wasp has a stinger but rarely ever stings unless you step on her. The male doesn't have a stinger so you don't have to really worry about either of them. I am sure everyone has seen these pest when hitting or just walking around the bunkers. This year it seems they are in about every bunker on the course which is similar to me when I am out playing golf. Neal has been out every morning spraying for these wasps and trying to control them. Last year we thought we had tried just about everything but this year we have a new product that hopefully will work.

 

 

 

 

 



 



 

 

 



 

 



Update 06-12-15

 

 Hope everyone enjoyed the Invitational last week and now it is time to get ready for the Dogwood. The turf is really greening up and growing rapidly. We sprayed all the tees, fairways, and approaches on Monday with PGR ( Plant growth regulator) which will slow down the vertical growth and help push the grass to grow more horizontally. This will hopefully get those weak areas lush and green and no longer thin. We aerified, fertilized, and put seed out on the weak areas also. We aerified all the greens with the solid tines, rolled, topdressed, and broomed them in on Monday. The greens were rolling 10'8" today Friday June 12 on the stimp which is very good this time of year for the bentgrass. The project on holes 4 & 5 is moving right along as the bunkers on number 5 have had all of the sand, gravel, liner, and pipes removed.  They will be on # 4 today and that hole is currently closed for the day and will be closed on Saturday June 13. We are taking a lot of the sod that has been removed from 4 & 5 and installing it in areas needed on the course. We hope you enjoy your next round of golf at Druid Hills GC and we hope you have a great day!

#14

 



 

#13

 

 

#15

 

Areas of new sod

 

# 4 project

 

# 5 Project

 

 

# 5 Project

Hello all!

The Golf Course has really kicked into high gear this month with all the fertilizer and rain that we have received. We have not been able to mow the rough on 14-18, fairways, or the approaches for a couple days because of the inclement weather this week so some areas are shaggy. So far this week we have had well over 4 1/2 " . The bermuda greens are also filling in very well and we are doing our best to get the grass to fill in where the weak areas are. We just sprayed the two greens with primo (PGR- plant growth regulator) and some fertilizer. This will stop the grass from growing vertically and hopefully push it horizontally. We also double cut and roll those greens everyday to keep speeds up. Hope everyone is enjoying the course and hit 'em straight! 

 The rough is really tall on #18. We will cut it once we can get a mower out there.

 #2 from the white tees

 

Greens

Aeration holes are starting to close up this week. The healing process has sped up with the fertilizer, warm weather, and rain that we have had. Some of the holes are still not yet filled with sand, but we are working on that daily by hand.