Fairway & tee topdressing

Finished top dressing fairways today. Took all week with some struggles with getting sand from the plant and being short a tractor. I went a little heavier to see if we could get away with one heavy top dressing versus two light applications. All this sand is a pain to look at and deal with, but our topdressing program is one of the main reasons that we never have to pull cores on
the fairways. It helps with thatch management and most of all, drainage. It really pays off after heavy rains - we can afford to get the carts out earlier.

The topdressing and verticutting will help the thin areas from standing water this past winter as well. It's been a slow recovery for everyone in Tidewater, but we have really seen some movement lately with the hot weather. These needed cultural practices will result in really good playing conditions for the rest of the year after recovery.

We verticut, topdress, drag (unfortunately tufting up the grass when dragging against the grain), then water the sand at night to get it into the grass canopy, then finally cut it the next morning with a dull mower to clean everything up. The sand will dull the reels as soon as that blade hits sand (like sandpaper on a knife). For this reason I try and limit the amount of mowing after top dressing. It costs about $700 to grind just one fairway mower after dulling it up. We also do the same for the tee and approach mowers (approx $400 a grind).

It should all be gone in about a week. That will be it for our major Bermuda maintenance. I ay hit ally the. Fairways with a fertilizer application on. Monday to really get them bumping. We just need some rain now!!


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