It’s has been a very busy time for the maintenance staff at Poppy Hills.

The week of Thanksgiving we aerated fairways and tees. They were all cleaned of the cores, seeded, topdressed with sand and fertilized with light watering to melt the fertilizer and wash in the sand. The entire process turned out very well; clean smooth and very playable.

The greens were aerated with ½-inch tines smaller than the typical ¾  usually used during warmer weather. The holes were sanded with kiln-dried sand to fill the holes more uniformly since non-dried sand is difficult to brush in the holes this time of year. We brushed off the excess and dragged and rolled them. They were also fertilized and a prevention application of Fungicide was added. With wet weather coming we feel it is best to help prevent rather than cure. The stage is set for the rains coming next week which should gives us great recovery from aeration.

We have begun drill seeding roughs in front of tees and other areas generally to take advantage of the rains being promised. This is an ongoing effort to add to all roughs but especially areas not irrigated during the summer- for example, the areas between most tees and beginning of fairways and walk on/walk off areas by tees and greens.