What's up with those Fairways?

Hello Members of Oconomowoc Golf Club,

We have received lots of questions about what has happened and is happening to the fairways so we are here to explain what is going on!

First of all, no it was not us practicing our wedges out on the course and no, it was not a mower malfunction. It was from a machine called a Verticutter, now you may be asking what is a Verticutter? Well, we can explain that too. The turf is happiest, healthiest, and plays the best when growing upright, however, over time and on a consistent mowing schedule the turfgrass plant starts to grow sideways and becomes intertwined with the other turf blades around it. This then can lead to what we know as thatch. Thatch leads to lots off issues such as puffy/soft playing surfaces and restricts the ability for oxygen, nutrients, and water from getting to the roots.

Photo from Greenthumb.co

Look at Steve go!

Look at all that material/thatch being removed!

Look at that mountain of organic material!

Now lots of you have seen the final product of the verticutter but maybe not right after the verticutter has come through. Yes, it does leave a mess but a good mess, you know what they say beauty is pain. Their are 2 major things that we are trying accomplish with this process, First being the removal of organic matter or commonly referred to as thatch, like we talked about before. During the process of verticutting we removed an estimated 1,601,000 liters of organic matter, that can fill 748 Subaru Outback's to the brim, 4.5 million bottles of Spotted Cow, or can fill the City of Oconomowoc water tower 1 1/2 times. This will only allow the plant to take up water more efficiently and breathe better. The second major reason for verticutting is it allows the turf blade to stand up and be mowed at its natural height. So the next time that we come through and mow after verticutting it is essentially restarting the plant at its natural height.  Ultimately, this process makes the plant healthier and for golfers, a better playing medium to play golf from.

Look at that turf stand up!

Now the clean up starts!

All hands on deck to clean up the hayfield!

This machine is called a Super 6, it works as a vacuum and sucks up any debris.  It also likes to pick up divots too :(  !

A healthy and happy turfgrass after verticutting!

Now for the question that everyone is wondering, why is there so much divots or damage out there? Well, there are a couple reasons to this. First and foremost time, it has been 8+ years since a cultural practice this aggressive has been done. So there are multiple areas where the turf is so knitted together (or tightly bound), and overgrown it isn't healthy enough to withstand growing up right. In addition, there are a couple of areas that were a little weak from the crazy weather of a year that we had. We have made several changes to the set up of the verticutter as we have continued in a effort to minimize the aesthetic damage that is being caused. We continue to make adjustments where needed and are pleased with the progress that we are making. All of the damaged areas will continue to heal and will come back healthier then before. Believe it or not, we did the same veritcutting practices to the back 9 fairways while we were closed for the bunker renovation last Fall and were very pleased with the results and the recovery. 

Verticutting is a very common cultural practice that we try to do to our greens weekly in the Spring and the Fall. This is one of the reasons, why the greens are high quality. Our greens have become very accustomed to this process and they now see it as a spa day, and are very happy to see the verticutter coming. We are hoping to reach this same level of plant health with the fairways at some point.  One other addition discussed is to topdress fairways in the future which will ultimately make verticutting less damaging and a better root zone for the OGC fairways with consistent sand additions.

As always please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions!