Oakdale Greens Department

  The yellow shrub in the background is Forsythia. We use this as a phenological indicator out on the golf course.  This defined time in the life cycle of these plants corresponds  with the early more susceptible life stages of the insects that damaged specific areas on the course like the bunker edges. We have applied products to control these insects moving forward but will still keep a close eye to insure quality control.

 We are trying something a little different around the trees this season. To help protect the roots and smooth out the playing surface around them we are starting to add mulch around the base. It will take time to get them all complete but the trees will be better off for it. 

Fairway Verticutting Pulls out excess organic matter Minimal surface disruption Verticutting fairways looks very aggressive, it produces lots of excess plant material that needs to be removed. It stands up the plant and cuts off runners to promote new shoot growth and a healthier plant. It will also improve water penetration into the fairway and airflow into the profile. It may take a few cuts to get things looking really good again but they will be healthier moving forward.

 Mother Nature usually does this sometime in April. Full coat of snow across the property. May not last the day but we'll take the moisture when it melts. Its a good day for us to catch up in the office and organize the maintenance buildings.

We are reconstructing the bunkers around 9 green of Thompson. It didn't take long to find these grubs under the soil as we rolled the sod back. When the timing is right we will take measures to control them to insure we don't get unnecessary damage later in the season.

 Course is open for play, its good to see golfers out. Lets hope this weather turns around and gets better, it is still mid April. Course conditions are slow, we don't want to push them to much to early. We are on our second or third cuts on everything and have the majority of the course cleaned up from winter.

 The bunkers behind 3 Homenuik Green have had liners installed and the edges repaired. This will help keep the sand clean moving forward and make them more consistent with the other lined bunkers on the course. We will keep them out of play now until the sod begins to establish itself so players can get in and out safely.

 A little rain and some better temperatures and the course is coming alive. Everything needs cut now and bunkers are getting close to being ready to open. 

 Range Open The range has been prepared for the season. All netting has been installed, flags set, target bunkers cleaned up, debris cleaned and grass cut. It will be sometime before the grass tee is open. The remaining of the practice areas will open with the course.

Bunker Clean Up   These are before and after pictures of a bunker on 6 Thompson Fairway. To prepare for the season all bunkers will be cleaned out, edged and bunker sand depths checked. We are also having repairs done in select areas, hopefully most of this will be completed before opening.

 Fairway Topdress In preparation to open we have taken advantage of the time to topdress the fairways. This is a process that happens multiple times a season with many benefits. helps dilute organic matter in the soil smooths the playing surface increases infiltration rate

Today we have vented all the greens. Between 4 and 5 inch depth gives the plants roots easy access to grow. This will also increase infiltration to begin the season allowing moisture and nutrients to get in the profile to make it plant available.  In the above picture you can see the marble look of the putting surface which is the turf waking up. Different varieties take different conditions to wake up with temperature being the most important. As the weather continues to get better this week and we will begin cutting and this look will blend away. 

Surface and soil temperatures control our course preparations every day. For the turf to be ready for traffic we need it to be actively growing and this will not happen until we get a consistent 9-10 degrees in the soil. Even with the nice days we have not been getting much growth yet. Sunny days help and of course warm sunny days are best. The cold overnights and frosty mornings set us back temperature wise, hopefully with this nice week we can make some headway. When the turf isn't actively growing it will not recover from minimal traffic and concentrated traffic in specific areas may really set things back.  Soil Temperature after a cool night (2.1 degrees) We will continue to monitor the temperatures and hopefully we can get growth to the point of needing to cut some grass this week. When we are cutting grass we know things are walking up and will be ready for play soon after.

 Hello Oakdale, We are going to test this blog and see if we can provide information on what is happening with the greens department at Oakdale Golf and Country Club. The senior managers from greens will post pictures and short reports on a wide range of topics. We will share links to other information that we feel is relevant and post some bios of the staff.