Bunkers... hazards???

It is interesting how a hazard that was once a wind eroded depression created and used by sheep grazing on the old courses became this! The cost of maintaining our bunkers, far exceed the cost of maintaining our greens. Bunkers have evolved into highly manicured hazard with sharp edges and fluffy (but not too fluffy) sand. I wish I had a sand pit suitable for bunker sand, because it is "gold" delivered in a dump truck.
Highly manicured turf... yes, but hazards... I am not sure...

light topdressing

Driving Range

Scattering your divot pattern as you practice on the driving range will speed up the recovery time of the divots. We include seed when we fill the divots with mix, but a bentgrass divot also fills in from the sides using lateral growth from stolons. Remember: try to ensure each divot is not touching the another and this will help speed up divot recovery!

Did you know... (mowing greens)

Did you know...
- the greens at Rebel Creek are mowed everyday
- we use Toro 21" wide walk behind greens mowers (as the photos show)
- Toro Flex21's have a floating cutting head that moves independently of the chassis. This allows for a great cut over undulating greens
- it takes 4 teams members, 3.5 hours to mow all 20 greens
- each team member taks great pride in mowing razor straight lines
- numerous ballmarks are repaired and filled on each green before it is mowed
- each mower is precisely set to <0.125" height of cut and checked everyday
- greens mowers are sharpened numerous times during the season
- all greens are mowed in a different direction everyday
- grass clippings are always collected and we monitor the yields to help us determine the fertilizer requirements

nature and golf co-existing

thatch removal program

Monday May 4: we will be continuing our thatch removal greens program. Our methods of controlling thatch levels has evolved over the past few years to the method we currently use. Our program includes a method of deep verti-cutting which cuts through the greens surface and pulls the thatch to the surface. We have calculated and tested our method and we have found that we remove a higher percentage of thatch and the greens recover more quickly from this practice compared to core aeration.
Why is this important? Excessive thatch will create greens that have inconsistent ball roll, drain improperly, as well as being prone to fungal diseases and heat stress. Bentgrass is naturally a thatch producer and in order to achieve high quality putting surfaces we need to control these levels regularly.

Hole #5 and #6 upgrades

Progress being made! We are planting trees, shaping bunkers and seeding.