Summer Scalping on Bermuda Cancel The title field is required!

1. Baker Daniel

   
   7/21/2011 11:07 AM

   I've had a pretty good year here with my 419 Bermuda across the course. My roughs are at 1.75" and my tees, fairways and approaches are at .5" They are getting the summer puffiness that we all despise and I have begun to pull out the brushes and verticutter. It seems logical that I could scalp down my tight areas from .5" ro .400 and remove alot of overgrowth if I came in after an aggressive brushing and/or grooming. If I topdressed and gave them some basic fertility, it stands to reason that I would have a great surface in 3-4 weeks. Same goes for the rough. Surely I could brush it up and scalp it down to 1.5" and get a better turf out of it for the fall/winter tournament season.
   
   Now the question - Has anyone done this successfully? What pointers would you give to someone doing it for the first time?

   
   
   
   
2. Andy Jorgensen

   

   1 posts
   
   7/21/2011 3:07 PM

   You could lower to .400" and circle cut. That's standard practice for most courses down here. Less disruptive than a verticutter. Do the same with the rough.
   
   We do all of this, including circle cut greens. In about 72 hours you'll be back to normal and much less puffiness and scalping.

   
   
   
   
3. Kinney Brian

   
   7/21/2011 3:07 PM

   Scalping is a lost art down here, as long as the GM is on board, I say do it! We re-did our collars and approaches last summer, made them bigger and recountered and they still look great, especially in season when seeded and striped up.

   
   
   
   
4. Keith Lamb

   

   3 posts
   
   7/21/2011 5:07 PM

   Just finished circle cutting most of the fairways this week. Beautiful! Bermuda needs a little summer scalping to keep it honest.

   
   
   
   
5. Fleegel Timothy

   
   7/21/2011 5:07 PM

   Ok I live, and have always lived in a northern climate. Can somebody explain summer scalping and circle cutting to this Yankee?

   
   
   
   
6. Wahlin Scott B

   
   7/21/2011 7:07 PM

   timfleegel said: Ok I live, and have always lived in a northern climate. Can somebody explain summer scalping and circle cutting to this Yankee?

   
   
   I'll try. Since fairway grade Bermudagrass has rhizomes, you can scalp it severely and it will come right back from nodes in and near the soil surface. You drive the mower around in circles to cut in all different angles to really get it down to the scalp height. Then you remove the clippings with a vacuum or blower and let it grow back. This removes the puffyness that can develop in Bermudagrass. I have also used a sod cutter to remove a complete layer of sod from tees to remove the thatch. The rhizomes go so deep that the tees come right back within a few weeks.

   
   
   
   
7. Andy Jorgensen

   

   1 posts
   
   7/21/2011 7:07 PM

   I have also used a sod cutter to remove a complete layer of sod from tees to remove the thatch. The rhizomes go so deep that the tees come right back within a few weeks.
   
   
   Scott,
   
   We did a tee reno this summer very similar. Except we used a roto-tiller first, dragged to remove the excess thatch, box bladed smooth then fertilized the crud out of them. About 90% of the tees were back in play within 4 weeks without having to sprig. Worked like a champ.

   
   
   
   
8. James Gray

   

   1 posts
   
   7/23/2011 6:07 PM

   in a possibly semi-related story.... last week my fairway operator lost a front roller on a rear reel....of course he didn't see it till he got back to the beginning of his pass....we cut common/419 fairways at .650" in southern Illinois...as you can imagine with no front roller it scalped the turf down to approximately .300" or so...anyway 7 days later that one single strip is actually several shades of green darker and more dense than the stuff being cut at .650"....kinda freaked me out a bit..never seen that before.

   
   
   
   
9. Andy Jorgensen

   

   1 posts
   
   7/24/2011 10:07 AM

   ucccsuper said: in a possibly semi-related story.... last week my fairway operator lost a front roller on a rear reel....of course he didn't see it till he got back to the beginning of his pass....we cut common/419 fairways at .650" in southern Illinois...as you can imagine with no front roller it scalped the turf down to approximately .300" or so...anyway 7 days later that one single strip is actually several shades of green darker and more dense than the stuff being cut at .650"....kinda freaked me out a bit..never seen that before.

   
   
   
   Are you ready to do the rest that way?!?!?!

   
   
   
   
10. McCallum David K

    
    7/25/2011 11:07 AM

    We had a comma shaped tee with water on both sides and wasn't as wide as you might want it. Over the years of golfers primarily hitting from the middle and our crew topdressing divot daily it developed a crown as you might imagine. We thought of stripping the sod but decided to rototill if with a 4 wheel drive tractor and pto tiller. It did a fanastic job of rototilling probably 6" deep back down to the original native soil. Hand raked it, some additional topdressing, a asphalt roller and fertilizer and back in play in less than 4 weeks and better than the original. No sprigs or relaying of sod.........bermuda is a resilent plant.
    
    We are presently reshapping some fairway cuts since we are getting so much rain and those done 3 weeks ago, have gone from rough HOC down to fairway HOC .5 and have already re-greened up. Doing one or two more today.