Overseeding Tees and Shady Surrounds

On Monday September 23, 2024 and throughout this week we will be overseeding the Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda tees and the winter shady putting surface surrounds of #'s 2,3,6,13,14 & 16. The hybrid bermuda tee tops need to be overseeded with ryegrass so we have green and  durable  tee surfaces to play off of this coming winter as the hybrid bermuda slows down and stops growing. 

The hybrid bermuda in the above mentioned shady putting surface surrounds stops growing as well. But the added factor of winter shade with the sun traveling lower in the northeastern horizon behind trees, causes this hybrid bermuda in these selected green surrounds to go completely dormant and can be soft and remain wet when it starts to rain. 

The Santa Anna Hybrid bermuda fairways and putting surface surrounds in the full sun will be treated with pigment and iron as we have done in past seasons which has been successful in keeping them green. For those who are interested, enjoy the below pictures of the process.

Step #1 - Scarify. Scarifying thins out the dense bermuda stand creating avenues for seed and sand to infiltrate, stay moist and germinate.

Step #2 - Cleanup. All of those bermuda sprigs and debris that were removed during the scarification process need to be removed before seeding. We use a variety of blowers and sweepers to complete this process. Here we are using the large tow behind turbine blower to pileup sprigs and debris.

Smaller tee levels that are difficult to get to with sweepers and tow behind blowers are cleaned up with backpack blowers, rakes & shovels.

Where possible we use the big mechanical sweeper  to remove the debris.

Step #3 - Mow. After the cleanup we mow / scalp the surface preparing the surface for overseeding and golf play on Tuesday 9/24/24.

Step #5 - Spread Seed. This brings us to the main event, overseeding with cool season ryegrass seed. Because the heat tolerant warm season  Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda that compose the base of our tees  start's to slow down as we transition to the cooler part of the year, we overseed these tees with cool season ryegrass seed. This gives the tees full grass coverage all winter. We'll mow this ryegrass a little higher all winter then we mow the Hybrid Bermuda in the summer so when the bermuda wakes up and starts to grow again in 2025 and we lower the cut to accommodate the bermuda's  growth preferences, the ryegrass will transition out as it can't compete with the aggressive Hybrid Bermuda. 

Maybe a little hard to see but this represents about 400 lb.'s per acre of ryegrass seed.

Step #6 - Add sand topdressing. The amount of topdressing we add in this process is just enough to cover the seed and protect it from the elements while it germinates

Step #6 - Water in in the seed and sand. We use irrigation to push the seed and sand into the thinned bermuda canopy where it will stay moist while germinating.

Above represents the  finished product you will be playing on for about a week ahead of ryegrass germination. 

Pigmenting Fairways and Sunny Green Surrounds

This picture of #9 was taken last year on Thursday 1/11/23. This is the color of our non-overseeded fairways by just treating them with pigment and iron. The color is pretty good and we plan starting the same process later in October to keep them green all winter. Playability on the dormant Hybrid bermuda is good as long as we dont get a super wet winter.

 

Here we are applying the pigment / iron mix to the fairways. Turfgrass pigment is different then paint which is widely used in desert golf courses. Pigment works differently by helping plants that still have some chlorophyll, or green color within the tissue maintain it and stay green. Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda is known for holding onto its color longer into the season and coming out of dormancy sooner than other varieties of hybrid bermuda. This is why the pigment works especially well on the Santa Anna in our opinion.