More Verticutting and Brushing on Fairways

Due to the Fall season in full swing it allows us to do many cultural practices that can not be accomplished during the extreme heats of Summer, such as, brushing and verticutting.  Both practices have the same goal, which is to remove grain, allowing the ball to sit more upright.  Below is a short video of our verticutting unit in action.  Notice how much plant material gets removed.  These practices give minimal disruption, but have a huge effect on how our fairways look and play. 

Verticutter in action!

 

Piles of plant material removed on one fairway

Verticutting Fairways

Over the past few weeks we've been verticutting fairways.  This procedure is done to help improve the ball lie on the fairways.  If you have an upright growth habit the ball will sit up better allowing golfers to hit a cleaner shot.  The verticutting procedure cuts stolons and horizontally growing leaf blades, which will promote more vertical growth.  We've completed three different directional cuts with the verticutter, which has made drastic changes to the overall ball lie on fairways.  We'll be stopping this process until the fall, due to it being extremely stressful on the turfgrass.   

Close up of a verticutter reel

Leftover plant material after verticutter is done 

Fairway mower cleaning up leftover plant material