Friday August 30th!!

Finally the wait is over, the greens will open Friday August 30, 2013. There are still a few areas that will need another week or two to finish filling in but for the most part the greens are in great shape. If you spent any time in Atlanta this summer you know it was less than ideal weather for completing a Ultra Dwarf Conversion/Grow-in. However, we were blessed with sunshine and high temps these past few days and greens have responded nicely.

I hope y'all are as excited as I am to get out and play on the new greens. I've hit a few wedges and have been rolling a lot of putts and I am pleasantly surprised at the firmness, speed and smoothness. After a double cut and single roll today they stimped at 10 ft even. Our goal in the Agronomy Department is to have them between 10.5 and 11 for the Grand Opening and Labor Day.

 There are trees falling on the 7th hole as I type and 8, 15 and 16 are soon to follow. Please pardon our progress as the tree contractors open sunlight corridors to enhance the greens growing environment which will make them even better in the long run.

As always, I hope you enjoy your round and follow the Agronomy Staff on Twitter @stivescc_vcsup for daily pictures and information about the course. 

Photos from around the course

Below are a few pictures that I have taken over the last 2 weeks.

Eye level with a putter 

 Hole 17 on Day 55, still have some growing to do

Clipping from 1 1/2 greens on Day 55. You can see that sunshine really does make a difference

Re-Establishing Approaches

When you come out to play over the next week, don't be shocked when you see the approaches looking like this. The approaches grew up to rough height during the renovation and we are out scalping them down to a half inch. With a little fertilizer and routine mowing they will back into shape in no time.

If you have any question feel free to email. 

When the greens reopen.....

The greens are scheduled to reopen August 24th, I wanted to inform everyone of what to expect on the putting surface. WARNING, the greens will not be FAST. They are still in the "grow in" phase and it is imperative to have the greens completely grow in prior to dormancy. If we start managing for speed we take a risk that we will not have 100% turf cover going into winter. 

I would expect the greens to roll between an 8.5 and 9.5 and slightly bumpy once we open, similar to a bent grass aerification. However, as we continue ahead the greens will only get better. If you have any questions, please shoot me an email and I will be happy to respond. 

Day 43 (Tuesday Aug 13)

This is the PG Test Plot at Day 43. I believe we are about 90-95% covered and we are going to bury the greens in topdressing sand this week to help get the smoothness. The brown you see in the picture is due to scalping, which is normal in the "grow in" phase. I will post some pics of the greens being buried later this week. We should also finish the TifGrand around the greens edges this week. 

Fast 36 days!

 1 Day after Sprigging (DAS)

 15 DAS

36 DAS

Day 37