Arbutus Ridge Golf Club: October 2011

It's a little earlier than I expected, but today we had our first frost delay of the season here at AR. With the beautiful sunny days and clear nights we've been having comes cool mornings that result in frosted turf. Turf is made up of 90% water and during periods of frost this water freezes in the cell causing the structure of the plant to be very brittle. If turf is walked on under these conditions the cell walls will shatter and can cause the plant much unneeded stress. If we walked on a green with frost it can cause irreversible damage and potentially kill the plant. I've attached a link to a USGA video this issue and why it is important that we take care of our golf course.

http://www.usga.org/turf/articles/video/frost.html

Before the heavy rains begin we started the drainage project on the 12th approach. First I would like to address the fact that our approaches have accumulated a massive of thatch over the years. Continuous aeration and topdressing is necessary to provide the desired results that we are looking for. This will take some time to accomplish but year-to-year they will continue to improve. I've attached a photo to indicate the level of thatch we are currently dealing with on # 12.

Approximately 5 inches of thatch build up

The drainage itself will help alleviate excess water in the area by allowing a path for it to escape. The existing drainage that was present was completely clogged and basically useless. The new drainage is being installed with a 12" trench at a 2% slope and consists of socked 4" perforated Big "O" and back filled with straight sand. The trench in the rough portion will be seeded with a few "dams" put in to stop the sand from washing out. The trench through the approach will have the sod replaced for a quicker healing time. The drain should be thought of the main collector drain which will allow us to tie into it down the road to continue to improve this area. Many of our approaches that are bowl shaped such as this require similar drainage and will be addressed in the future. We did run into a few problems, ie stumps and irrigation, but feel we made great progress today. We are about 3/4's of the way through and it will be completed tomorrow.