WRITTEN BY JACK CREVELING, GOLF COURSE SUPERINTENDENT

Crews at Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club have finished cultural practices on its course until next summer.

Work on cultural practices – which include aerification and tilling – concluded on Labor Day. Crews will continue light vertical mowing and grooming the greens for the next nine months to ensure course conditions remain tournament-quality.

Vertical cutting boosts greenway turf health and promotes course nourishment. During August, crews spend their time vertical cutting the course to remove excess organic materials from the turf. This allows crews to keep turf tightly mowed and provided a better surface for overfeeding this fall.

After the mowing was completed, crews dragged excess material to help the turf dry out, blew the fairways clean and then mowed the fairways in a circular pattern to promote proper growth

Once completed, fairway recovery takes about three weeks to produce a better playing surface.

The process, as described in Grounds Maintenance, turns up thatch and opens the turf canopy. This allows the turf to absorb more nutrients and water, clears the way for fresh growth and gives the fairways an energy boost.

Keeping the Course Healthy

Aerification is a cultural practice that disrupts the greenway to produce long-range benefits. It helps to relieve soil compaction, improves the soil mixture around the highest part of a green’s roots and reduces the accumulation of excess thatch.

To maintain that look and that feel, the Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club maintenance team schedules certain times for the aerification of the greens. The United States Golf Association states that core aeration is ideally timed when turf is healthiest and growing vigorously. That way the turf can withstand the stress of aeration and open holes recover more quickly. Crews completed aerification mid August.

Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club offers players a 10-acre short game area with two practice holes and a driving range. The Golf Shop at Golden Ocala offers clubs, clothing and a wide variety of golf accessories, stocking only the finest in the sport. Private lessons are available with Golden Ocala’s PGA professional instructions, led by acclaimed by golf instructor John Elliot, Jr.

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