Here are some of the things we have been working on.
1) New irrigation installed on the left side of #3, between #1 and #3 and the left side of #16. Below is a picture of the lines on #3.
2) We put up a bat house that we got as a gift from Wendy Nagle's 2nd and 3rd grade class at the Ann Arbor Learning Community.
3) We deep-tine aerified all of the greens and hollow tined the collars. The deep tine aerification is a solid 14 inch long tine. This breaks through any layers that develop in our greens over time. #3 green is a prime example of this layering. After many years of topdressing on the greens, we now have 3-4 inches of sand on all of our greens. Unfortunately, water doesn't move readily through the change from one layer to the next. On #3, this means that all of the water from the spring tends to sit in the top 3 inches, making it waterlogged. This is why we had #3 green closed down this spring. The channel that the deep tine punches allows water to move past the layer and drain out of the soil profile.
After aerifing, we topdressed sand onto the greens to fill in the holes and smooth the putting surface.
4)We also turned on the irrigation system. We waited until after we had the new irrigation lines installed because it makes it a lot easier to do when the lines are not filled with water.
5) I saw this green heron (Butorides virescens) near the pumphouse. I love this little bird. It is not as famous as it's larger cousin, the great blue heron, but I think it is more interesting. That might be because I don't see them as much.
