Winter Cultural Practices
Finally, the weather conditions were right to start preparing our MiniVerde greens for the upcoming season. The course was closed, so we used the opportunity for some much needed cultural practices.
First part of the process was a light backtrack groom with our newly purchased ultra groomers. The beauty of the backtrack groom was that we were able to attack the grain in two directions on the same pass. This allowed us to lift a significant amount of leaves laid over by winter rolling. Note that this was a grooming process, not vertical mowing. We stayed above the plant crowns.
Following the grooming we backtracked mowed with brushes in a different direction than the grooming. Mowing in a different direction allowed us to cut any turf that was upright and gave the best cut possible.
After grooming and mowing we added a light topdressing and dragged the greens. The benefits of these processes was instant as we gained a significant amount of speed and the roll of the golf ball was extremely smooth.
To break the process down it took 2 employees to groom, 5 green mowers, 1 top dresser and 1 employee on the drag mat. All totaled, the man hours used was 72 hours.
The image above demonstrates the back track grooming.
Our intern Austin back tracking the greens.
The video above shows Danny top dressing greens.
First part of the process was a light backtrack groom with our newly purchased ultra groomers. The beauty of the backtrack groom was that we were able to attack the grain in two directions on the same pass. This allowed us to lift a significant amount of leaves laid over by winter rolling. Note that this was a grooming process, not vertical mowing. We stayed above the plant crowns.
Following the grooming we backtracked mowed with brushes in a different direction than the grooming. Mowing in a different direction allowed us to cut any turf that was upright and gave the best cut possible.
After grooming and mowing we added a light topdressing and dragged the greens. The benefits of these processes was instant as we gained a significant amount of speed and the roll of the golf ball was extremely smooth.
To break the process down it took 2 employees to groom, 5 green mowers, 1 top dresser and 1 employee on the drag mat. All totaled, the man hours used was 72 hours.
The image above demonstrates the back track grooming.
Our intern Austin back tracking the greens.
The video above shows Danny top dressing greens.
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| This photo was taken after 12 holes of grooming. |
