Squaring Tee Boxes

Over time on the Riverside Course our square tee boxes have expanded out past their original dimensions. In an effort to straighten the edges and remove sloped areas from the tees, we have been resquaring the tees.

We first measured the sides of the tee boxes to ensure they were equal lengths and placed stakes on the four corners.

We ran string around the stakes to visualize the new tee edges. This helped to make sure the edges were straight and aimed towards the landing zones for the hole.

The new edges were edged with a stick edger down the string line. We then painted dots along the edges to help the tee mowers see the new boundary of the tees. We then mowed the cleanup passes along the tees to set the new edges. This should help our team maintain straight lines on the edges of our tee boxes in the future.

Tree Plantings

- An on going winter project is the installation of new trees on both the Highlands and Riverside Course. The tree planting is a part of a long range design formed by Rees Jones Inc.

- Some trees are placed in specific spots to help outline holes and others are planted to replace where previous trees were removed due to mother nature.

- The process can take roughly half a day by the time the spade truck removes the plug, retrieves the tree, and places it in its new location.

- Some trees are simply moved from one side of the course to another, while others come from areas outside of the club.

Bench Refinishing

In our winter months, we take the time to refinish some on course accessories. Due to being exposed to the elements our benches were worn with moss covering them.

First we sanded the moss and the previous layers of penetrants applied to the wood.

Then we rubbed on a Teak Oil Finish to help seal the wood from moisture and to darken the color.

The end product is a nice rich color with a smooth surface, making the bench look like new.

SNOW DAY!

Needle Tine

- This morning we needle tine the Highlands' greens to help relieve weak areas and allow them to  breath after a busy summer.

- To prevent from causing any disruption to the putting surface, we used 1/8" tines.

- The greens were rolled following the needle tining to give a smooth putting surface.

Bunker Maintenance

 - With the turfgrass growth slowing down, we are able to focus more on bunker maintenance. This time of year the Highlands agronomy staff goes through the bunkers once a week and smooth out the faces.

- Also, we take the time check the depth of the bunker sand and make sure there is at least 2" of sand on the faces and 4" on the floor.

-  With certain pin locations the ball tends to funnel into the same area of certain bunkers. This leads to the sand in these areas to get shifted and can cause damage to the liner if the depth is not checked regularly.

1898 House

-The newest addition to the club is the 1898 house, the new venue allows for members to have a shaded open air dinning experience and have a beautiful view of the two golf courses. The landscape staff were given the task of installing the landscape and sod around 1898.  Before any sod is laid a pre plant fertilizer with a balanced analysis of Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus is applied to help the sod root down and get a kick start  to growing.

- Finished Product

Overseeding Range Tees

We recently overseeded our range tees with annual ryegrass for the winter. This gives the members the option to practice and hit shots from actual turf, giving an authentic reaction with their swing, as opposed to hitting off of a mat. We verticut the range tees with a 5 reel unit at -0.250" below the bed-knife. This helped to open the existing turf canopy, so the ryegrass seed could germinate and reach the soil surface. The tee was then mowed clean. The seed was then spread over the top of the existing turf with a Gandy Drop Spreader, set to the widest setting.

The seed was spread at a rate of 12 lbs. of ryegrass seed/1000 sq. ft. We used a heavy rate to ensure a healthy, thick stand that would withstand the traffic and hitting patterns on the tees.

The seed was watered for 5 min every hour to promote germination. It will take approximately a month for the seed stand to grow in fully and be useable for golfers.

Mowing Fairways

- Our last remaining intern's morning assignment was to mow fairways on the Highlands Course. Since starting his internship in May, he has mowed every playing service on both courses and operated every piece of golf maintenance equipment. The Highlands mow fairways with two five reel fairway mowers and to keep a clean on edge on the fairways the clean up pass is mowed directly behind the intermediate mower.

Edging Greens

- On the Highlands, to prevent the TifGrand Bermudgrass collars from encroaching in the TifEagle greens and vice versa, they are edged. This keeps the greens and collars the size they were intended to be from the renovation. Also, edging the greens helps the operator see exactly were the edge of the green is when they are mowing their clean-up passes. Edging greens occurs roughly once every three weeks, but really just depends on how vigirously the turfgrass is growing.

Aerification

- The interns played huge roles in carrying out both courses aerifications. They operated aerifiers, top-dressers, gradens, and verticutters. Riverside's aerification went from July 4-10 and Highlands was July 17-21. The guys logged some long hours and had great attitudes through the whole process.

Below: One of the interns is operating a graden on the Riverside greens, this machine removes thatch  to improve the turfgrass' ability to breathe, absorb nutrients, water, and sunlight. 

Bunker Maintenance

-We are fortunate at Atlanta Athletic Club that the club is closed on Mondays. This allows us to do jobs that we are not able to complete in as timely of a manner Tuesday-Friday, when the club is open. Mowing bunker faces is one the tasks we complete every Monday. We use flymo mowers are used complete task, these are mowers that do not have wheels and move by creating a cushion of air between the mower and the ground allowing the mower to hover. This allows the mower to move in any direction and mow steep banks without scalping.

- The bunker are edged every other week to two weeks depending on how fast the grass is growing. This process begins after the flymo mowers have mowed. First, the sand is pulled off the faces of the bunker to allow for a sharp clean cut. Then, a weedeater is used to put that clean edge of the bunker. The last part of the process is to blow the grass clipping out of the bunker, push the sand back up on the bunker faces, and rake the bunker.

- The interns take on the  responsibility of making sure all bunkers are mowed, raked, and that the crew is completing the process in a timely fashion. This allows our interns to find out what it is like to run a crew and the importance of detail.