11/7/2020 11:11 AM
We ended up only doing the one partial hole, short side of a split fw par 5 at the 9/16 on Monday. Went back to 3/8 and got the remaining fairways and approaches done plus double verticut the range tee, about 24 acres total, in less than 4 days. Wednesday we got 7 holes (3 par 3, 3 par 4, and 1 par 5), verticut and cleaned up in 7 hours. Late starts due to frost cut short a couple days so we could have probably had everything completed in 3 days. We would skip a couple holes to better stay ahead of play.
At 3/16 we removed about 10 gator loads of material per hole on average and left a lot of little pieces behind that the sweeper and blower couldn't move. We will solid tine next week.
This will be the new normal for us, spring and fall verticut and solid tine. Too time consuming to core and cleanup with our little crew and trying to work around a full golf course. We gave up on coring several years ago because it was impossible to get more than 7 to 10 done before the weather was gone. We have been doing solid tine spring and fall since then. I have been looking at verticuts for several years at the show and have been trying to get the owners to let me buy one. If we had our own we wouldn't have to try to get so many done in one day and could stretch out the process as weather and other tasks dictate.
Chris Thuer, CGCS, Bear Slide Golf Club, Cicero, IN