2020 Fall Equinox

Today, Tuesday September 22, 2020 is the Fall Equinox, the day we circle in our GCM calendar every year as a sort of finish line. It's also a starting line as it is the  official start of fall where day and night are of equal length and the time of the year cool season turf flourishes and recovers from past  summer. 

We have always found this day and time of the year refreshing because summers can be hard on this property. However we now are a bit conflicted with the advent of warm season turf on #17 fairway and our  green surrounds as this turf enjoys the warmer weather and starts to slow down. At some point we will finish what we started,  and when we do the Fall Equinox wont be as special, but for now we'll continue to rejoice that fall is here so we can watch the transformation once again from summer setbacks to fall splendor. 

Below are some wrap up pictures of the 2020 fall aeration & over seeding process that we started just two week's ago. Cart restrictions are necessary to protect the 10 tons of seed we inject into this golf course every fall which requires time and moisture to germinate and get established. Thank you for your patience.

#17 Green two weeks out from core aeration. Holes are covered. Bentgrass seed is coming up all over the surface. Healthy and lush. Putting quality will start to improve as we lower the height of cut (HOC), apply some more light topdressings and apply some growth regulator which we plan to start today 9/22/20. 

Close up of the putting surface's exhibit a very healthy & dense condition only two weeks out from aeration. 

Tees were over seeded only 8 days ago which is why thy appear shaggy. The shagginess is all of the new seed coming up. They will get mowed at a higher HOC then normal tomorrow 9/23/20  which will help the new,  juvenile seedlings establish through next week then the HOC will be lowered back to normal.

The Driving Range Tee was over seeded just yesterday 9/21/20. This seed will need some time to germinate and get established then mowed down just like the regulation tees. We will open the tee for Friendship Cup on 10/7-8/20, only two weeks after over seeding. We might have to close it again after the Friendship for further establishment. 

After greens aeration and tee over seeding this season we started with core aerifying and seeding
the roughs which we completed last week. You can see seed coming up everywhere. Currently we are seeding the  fairways with the Triwave  Slit Seeder in two different directions. This will thicken the fairways up quickly.





Above shows the seeding pattern the Triwave Slit Seeder makes in our fairways. Those slits are full of ryegrass seed that will germinate and fill in quickly.




On top of the seed we typically apply a nice balanced fertilizer at this time of the year. The combination of aeration, seed, fertilizer & fall weather can produce one of those be careful what you wish for moments when we have more grass then we know what to do with.  

2020 Fall Aeration Update

Granite Bay GCM started our fall aeration procedures directly after the Labor Day Holiday as planned. We completed 1-18 regulation putting surfaces as well as the upper putting green and will have rough completed through  hole #11 by the end of the day on Thursday 9/10/20.

Sunrise aided by smoke over the GBGC GCM yard 9/9/20

We aerated greens first so they can recover ASAP which is a solid tradition. We opted to start the rough next by core aerating followed by seeding and topdressing with compost which will keep the seedbed moist which is necessary for  seed germination. We will complete this process in the rough next week on holes 13-18. We opted to do the rough before any work on fairways because the rough took more summer losses then the fairways this year and needed more help.

Freshly aerated and topdressed putting surface

This coming Monday 9/14/20 we will verticle mow, seed and lightly topdress the greens, 6 days after we core aerated them. We will mow them for the first time after aeration on Tuesday or Wednesday 8 or 9 days out from aeration. Good recovery weather is forecasted  so we should see aeration holes covered in 10 to 14 days  and back to putting quality 21 to 28 days  out from aeration. Along with the finishing touches on the greens this coming Monday we plan to over seed the tees. More to come on that process. After the tees on Monday we plan to finish the rough on the back 9 on Tuesday 9/15/20 and therefore will have the back nine closed until 1:00 PM.

We will still be seeding and topdressing throughout the rest of next week but shouldn't require any more closures. We will all have to play golf and work around each other for the next week and you will have to keep the carts on the path so we dont jeopardize seed germination, but by the later part of the month the course will be on the road to recovery once again from ravages of yet another Sacramento summer.

Core aerifying rough

Dragging & braking up cores

Seeding Rough

Spreading compost over seed in bare areas

Sweeping up aeration core remnants