Update on Aeration Day 1 / Bridge Work and Root Pruning

We had the best conditions possible for aerating greens!  Sunny and breezy to dry things up, and room temperature all day long.  The only glitch was a little equipment hassle first thing in the morning, but we caught up quick and got the front nine completed.  Alan and Tyler spread 30 tons of sand, Ryan and Cody operated the Soil Reliever (Deep Tine machine), Don walked 23,000 steps behind the small aerator, Brenden brushed the greens, and Garrett, Daniel, Ernest, Zach, Anthony, and Trevor used shovels and brooms to clean up the excess sand.  Jason was busy setting up equipment, adjusting aerators, fixing broken tines, and "putting out fires" all day.  5 of these guys just started in the past week and we are very happy to have them on the team.  They are learning a lot about our operation and were a huge help today.  

Tomorrow we will have essentially the same lineup and the weather looks great.  Hopefully the back nine goes as smoothly as the front did.  

As it stands now we expect to have the course open for play on Thursday.  We reserved that day for aeration in case of rain.  We will have a full day of brushing and rolling on Wednesday along with playing catch up on mowing that we've missed out on due to aeration.  Barring any surprises you can expect to have the course available Thursday morning.  

Bridge Work

While we were aerating, the bridge contractors started on the second half of the bridge on 7.  We are hopeful that they will complete this job by Wednesday.  

Root Pruning

Tomorrow we will have a root pruning machine on site and will attempt to attack many areas of the course where tree roots are causing / will cause damage.  It's completely unknown how far they can make it in a day, but we have prioritized a number of areas for them to focus on.  I'll share pictures of this process in the next update.  Later this year I expect you'll be able to clearly see the benefits of this job.  Grass should improve dramatically outside the cutlines from the pruner.  

Bean and Lucy doing their evening inspection

Ryan with Soil Reliever following sand topdressing

Don with the aerator following Ryan.  He got over 23,000 steps today