So, what's the most important date of the year for Bernardo Heights Country Club? I'll give you a few hints: It coincides with the first full day of daylight savings time, it involves poking a lot of holes in the ground, and most golfers don't care for this day at all. Yes, it's this Monday when we get to open up the greens with some 3/8 inch tines. Out with the bad and in with the good.
The bad is old layers, thatch, and compacted soil. The good is high quality sand, organic fertilizer, and slow release nutrients. Soil temperatures have been steadily climbing and will aid the greens in the healing process. Another huge help is the full inch of rain that came in last night. I'd say it was perfect timing to flush the salts and allow the soil enough time to dry before we begin Monday's process.
It is very important to test all the machines before we get started on Monday, because we only get one shot. If the aerifier breaks down, or the tine setup is too aggressive, we will spend a lot of time changing the plan, which isn't fun at all. This is already a dark AM to dark PM full day event, so we can't have any hiccups or down time. Therefore, we not only tested our machines on the nursery green, we also experimented with an area with very shallow roots due to little sunlight. The back left corner of the 6th green held up nicely, so the rest of the greens will be fine.
Our machines are all tuned up, the staff is ready for a long hard day, and the weather looks perfect. We have fertilizer ready to go with the rates and spreader settings already figured. The crew already knows their assignments for the day and the importance of the day has been made very clear. Of course, that has lead each and every one of them to tease me with threats of calling in sick. That's not going to happen.
So, we are ready to roll. We also have two huge piles of sand in the shop. By day's end, Izzo will need to find another beach.
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