What Happened to the Greens?

You may have noticed last week that we were experiencing scalping on our greens and may wonder why.

Last week we started to lower the HOC (height of cut) from 1/8 inch to 1/10 inch and started to experience some scalping. Part of this was due to thatch found in the green thus we started verticutting (a way to remove thatch) three times last week and even double verticut on last Friday prior to mowing. In addition, to allow the green to heal from the scalping while we were aggressively verticutting we raised the HOC back to 1/8 of an inch.

Over the weekend I myself mowed the greens and discovered that not only did we have a thatch problem but we also had slight imperfections in the greens from not getting the greens completely smooth after aerification. These areas were scalping into the sand and causing issues that we needed to address immediately so we could lower the HOC as well as getting ready for the upcoming overseed.

On Saturday I lowered the amount of irrigation so on Monday we could drag the greens in a effort to smooth them out. On Monday, first we drug the greens with the coca mat, then mowed them followed by dragging them once again with our green drag brushes. Since Monday was a short day due to the Holiday that was all we did that day. On Tuesday, we first aggressively verticut the greens followed by dragging them once again with the green brush -- this time, however, we did not mow the greens. Later in the day Ernie and I went out and irrigated the greens heavily, and last night I upped the irrigation.

This morning we mowed the greens and we are no longer scalping. But that being said we will be topdressing, dragging and verticutting them to completely smooth them before overseeding to give us the perfect surface that we have come to expect.

First, I want to say the greens perfectly healthy and are growing in fine. Second, lowering the HOC in the second week after aerification is normal and if it wasn't for the pockets of sand and thatch we would have no issues. The problem was we did not smooth them as well as we have in the past and rush ourselves to give our summer members a better product quicker. This is the first year we have used solely 30-grade kiln dried sand and shortened our window of aerification. This did not work so well and will be addressed in the next Green Committee meeting.

The greens are fine and will quickly heal from the scalping that occurred last week. If you have any questions please contact me directly.