What happened to 8 green!

Many of you will notice that there is a large scar across the back of 8 green.  It seems like something is always happening at this green.  After the thinness of last year from being a immature surface and the effects of traffic especially along the walk-on and off areas, we decided this green needed a little push.  By this I mean we needed to get a cushion built up to absorb the everyday foot traffic that our older greens have generated over the years.  This mat layer developed nicely over the winter and the green has held up well to this point.

Recently when we started to bring this green down to the heights of the other greens we started to experience a scalp of the surface.  This is an indication that the green has become too thatchy and needs dilution with topdressing.  Although we have been very regular on this program a few weeks of wet and warm weather, the green like the rough came alive and got thicker than we could handle.

Today we double verticut the surface and removed a lot of excess material in that layer.  This was followed by  heavy topdressing and mowing.  In an effort to see if the surface could tolerate the lower heights a mower was run across the surface on the back of the green  As you can see, it scalped the area.  This damage will be visible for a while, but should not affect putting quality.  There is a lot of grass in this surface and coupled with the generous mat layer, this area should recover in a week or two, just about the same time that we should have this surface mowing the same as all the others on the course.

I know it seems that 8 is troublesome, it has after all been rebuilt 3 other times, but I think once we get this area stabilized we will all see what kind of putting surface it can be and how it truly plays.