We're getting new collars

Yep, you read that right, GCM will be stripping and re-sodding collars following greens aerification. Why is your superintendent sodding collars in August? Well, its honestly the ideal time given our schedule and maintenance already planned. Here's how it breakdown-

Following greens aeration, we stop mowing greens till the sand has worked itself far enough into the turf canopy that we don't ruin our reels with the sand. That usually takes anywhere from 5-10 days depending on how quickly the greens grow and how much sand we use. When we strip the collars, we're not putting sod back down right away. There is some soil work we are going to do and the timing of stripping and sodding in sequence is almost impossible. This will leave a stripped area around the greens that we don't want any equipment to drive across because it will smash the edges and take longer for the new sod to knit into the green. So, the perfect time to strip the collars is while were not mowing the greens anyway. By the time were ready to start mowing, the new sod will be down and we can use boards to safely drive across it.

So here's our process, we'll strip 4' around every green and 16' in front of the applicable greens where we shaved down earlier this year. We'll then apply mushroom compost to the bare soil followed by core aeration to "till" the collars and work the mushroom compost into the profile. Next step is to verticut the cores and mushroom compost to blend it together, and then grade it with a special grade box I fabricated just for this project. Once all that's complete, new sod is laid, watered, and the process of topdressing and rolling commence. We are using greens height 007 bentgrass for the sod, which will allow us to reduce our collar width from 4' to 2' pretty much instantly. The sod is slightly higher than what we are currently mowing at so there will be some work to get the "cleanup" cut around the greens (that was formerly collar area) down to height.

Here is the target Maintenance schedule for the next couple weeks-

• Aug 8-9- Aerate greens

• Aug 10-12 Strip sod from collars

• Aug 15-16 Collar soil prep

• Aug 17-19 Re-Sod Collars

• Aug 20-Sept 1 ALL SOD CONSIDERED GROUND UNDER REPAIR

• Sept 2 Target Date for collars sod open for play

I recognize we have B team matches and Ryder Cup during this schedule, but keep in mind this is a major upgrade for the course. I also reached out to 4 different companies to do the work for us and none of them could complete prior to member guest, which I feel we can all agree should be the priority. My team will be stripping the sod and doing the prep work and the sod company we are purchasing the sod for will be doing the install. This was the only way we could complete the project within the timeline. Please be patient and respectful of the work we are doing, there will be less than desirable playing conditions for a few weeks but by September we'll have a significantly better Golf Course.