2021 Course Renovations @ Nikanti Golf Club
After another successful course renovation last year, Nikanti Golf Club was able to drop its soil organic matter levels in the top 20mm by a further 1.9%. Although this is not as much of a reduction as they were hoping for, both course conditions and playability continued to improve. See last year’s post to find out how they were able to achieve this.
This year’s program aims to reduce soil organic matter in the top 20mm by a further 1%. The course is almost at optimum year-round greens firmness, and believe reducing OM a little more may see them achieve their target.
The original plan with the tees was to topdress, core aerate, and then aerate again with 12mm solid tines after the cores had brought up more material. Sadly, time was not on our side and we had to be satisfied with only the core aeration. Luckily, the results were still great.
Unfortunately, in the second week of the program, the course was hit by a large storm which saw a lot of the topdressing in the fairways wash down to the low points in the fairway. This was very much unexpected in the middle of the dry season and was a pretty large setback that required further investment in sand to smoothen the surfaces again.
If you are ever in need of rain, make sure to schedule your annual course renovations :)
Below is a listed summary of the full program completed this year on all surfaces. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Greens
Vertical mow at -4mm in 2 directions, up and back on the same line
Double cut at 3mm up and back on the same line
Heavy topdress
Aerate with 12mm solid tines at 1.5” x 2” spacing
Brush in the sand by hand with brooms
Aerate with 12mm solid tines at 1.5” x 2” spacing in a different direction
Heavy roll
Brush in the sand by hand with brooms
Fertilise with 16-0-16
4-days later
Aerate with 6mm solid tines; 1.5” x 2” spacing
Roll
Brush
Soluble fertiliser & wetting agent
Tees
Graden (scarify) at -10mm
Mow at 6mm
Heavy topdress
Aerate with 16mm coring tines; 2” x 2” spacing
Steel drag mat
Heavy roll
Fertilise with 21-0-0
Approaches
Vertical mow at -5mm in 2 directions, up and back on the same line
Double cut at 9mm up and back on the same line
Triplex cut at 7mm
Heavy topdress
Aerate with 16mm solid tines; 2” x 2” spacing
Coco drag mat smooth when sand is dry
Heavy roll
Fertilise with SOA 21-0-0
Fairways
Circle cut at 7mm
Recycling Dresser at -125mm
Steel drag mat and Roto-brush
Graden (scarify) at -20mm
Steel drag mat
Mow at 7mm
Topdress
Coco drag mat
Heavy roll
Fertilise with SOA 21-0-0
Rough
Mow from 40mm to 20mm
Aerate high traffic areas with 16mm coring tines
Fertilise with SOA 21-0-0
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions with regard to this year’s program, would like to chat about your cultural programs, or if you’d like to submit any #OM246 organic matter samples for analysis.