USGA Turf Advisory Visit

On Thursday May 3 many of our green committee members met with USGA agronomist Bob Vavrek to learn more about the inner-workings of the golf course.  Many topics were covered such as the importance of how root growth relates to the quality of the turf.  In the first picture you can see the results of many years of topdressing and aerification to the greens. It's difficult to see in the picture but the sand topdressing layer (light colored) has a very dense root mass, while the native soil (dark colored) only has roots in the sand column created by a deep aerification tine.  You can see the column of roots laying on top of the knife. The second picture is the two year old putting green #4 that was built properly and has a dense root system that extends 8 to 10 inches deep. A deep dense root system is vital to get through the dog days of July and August.