Covid Practice Plans (Green Building -- please tell me I'm not nuts!)

[Jobu]

if the length of the green was on that line, you would have more room for your shots to land and bounce once or twice.

[DShepley]

There is also a line straight down the length of the green from the corner of my yard that is about 50 yards. It'll be just fine.

[kmay__]

Cant believe I haven't seen this thread before, you are doing a great job man looks awesome! Where in the Falls you play? Legends, Grand Niagara, Whirlpool, and Pen Lakes would be my 4 recommendations for someone coming from out of town. I'm about 10 minutes from the Falls.

[DShepley]

We played Whirlpool, Ushers Creek, Battlefield and Grand Niagara. It was a great time, crazy hot but lots of fun.

[kmay__]

Yea the heats been mental here in the shop, been playing mostly early am and twilight rounds last month or so. Lots of good courses in the area.

[DShepley]

Just dying for rain!! We are supposed to get 20mm today but so far it has all skirted around us though there is a larger system on the radar that is supposed to linger overnight. It can't be 34*C for two weeks and not result in a good thunder storm though, so crossing my fingers this system in the distance drops so goodness for me!

[bill.ig]

Your short game is going to be money this Fall.

 

Really fun to read this and follow your progress. Thanks for sharing with us.

[berndgeurts]

What kind of apron are you going to make? Just the normal grass lying around cut a little bit lower?

[DShepley]

For now there won't be an apron, or if so, just the regular grass cut a bit shorter. I would need another reel mower set up to cut an apron which isn't in the budget just yet.

[DShepley]

So right now I basically have a decent looking tee block in my yard. Things are progressing well and I may start the process of lowering the cut height by the end of this week. Currently at 1/2" and thinking of dropping to 3/8". There are a few seeded spots that are filling in well and tonight I watered in fertilizer and some more surfactant. We also got close to 2" of rain between Friday and Saturday night, (it was very welcome after a very dry spell and heat wave).

[kmay__]

^Looking great man, we were out in Wheatley all day Saturday for some flat track racing, weather was beautiful all day but there were traces of that rain from Friday night.

[bonvivantva]

The green location is clearly already set; how is this comment in any way constructive? In any event, 50-60 yards in and less to about a 1/3rd sized green seems like a perfect 1.5 acre yard setup to me. I'm very jealous.

 

The green is looking great. I hope you share some video of your first pitches, chips, and putts.

 

 

[DShepley]

I'm hopefully only a month or so away from putting. I gave it a cut at 1/2" today and on Thursday I'll lower the height a slight bit. I expect as I lower it, there will be more spots identified that need to grow in, so we will see how it goes.

[DShepley]

Every day is lawn maintenance day when you are building a practice green. Today I cut the lawn, (it was still a bit crispy), swept it, and cut the golf green. I took this photo while having a beer and admiring the view. I really need to get that bunker finished, maybe when this heat wave breaks.

[DShepley]

Well, it's been a very strange July so far in our area. Very hot and humid for the past 3 weeks and we hadn't had any quality rainfall for most of the month. We were lucky enough to get close to 2" of rain last weekend, and yesterday we got a nice steady rain for most of the day that amounted to about 1/2". Today I decided to lower the cut height from 1/2" to 3/8" and it has made quite a difference. The weather has it showing some stress, though it looks like we are going to return to our seasonal average in the next few days with the long range showing potential rain on 6 of the next 14 days. If the green does well this week, I will lower the height again next Friday but we will see how it reacts to the stress, (perhaps another round of nitrogen as well).

[2bGood]

This is very incredible - great work!

[Chip Duffer]

That is really looking good.

Looking like an old school green from here. By today’s standards, a very nice fairway length.

Well done DShepley

[DLiver]

Very cool. Interesting thread--thanks for sharing it!

[A.Princey]

Looks uber impressive, but if I ever get the balls to do one outside, I'll go full-on, high end synthetic. I don't have your patience! Good luck and enjoy!

[cardoustie]

Have you rolled any putts yet ?

[DShepley]

Yes, would be easier to look after. In this case I had everything to build it pretty much. Synthetic this size would cost around $20-$25K. So far I have about $1700 into it.

[DShepley]

I hit some chips and pitches the other day. It's still too long to putt on.

[DShepley]

The green was starting to show some stress from the heat which was likely amplified somewhat by the cut height being lowered recently. I treated with Nitrogen as a foliar spray at 1/4lb / 1000 sq ft and things seem to be greening up. Tonight I also top dressed lightly, (which will become a weekly routine for the next while), and unfortunately stumbled across what may be cutworm damage. I am going to go out later tonight with a flashlight to see if I can confirm that it is cutworm but have a few calls in regarding treatment. Amateur greenskeeping is hard.....

[Chip Duffer]

dang, sure hate that you may have an issue with this. Hopefully this can be healed rather simply. You’ve done some great work with this

[farmer]

Diazanon, if you can get it.

[DShepley]

So...it's been a tough couple weeks in these parts for growing bentgrass, (tough enough for the pros let alone an amateur like myself). The good news is that the various treatments I have employed seem to be working and the green looks like it is bouncing back. Tonight we got a bit of rain finally, though it wasn't enough so I was back on the sprinklers. I did happen to snap this photo though...Pot of gold indeed....! Also, I keep waiting for Ben Hogan and George Knudson to peek out of the cornfield, (field of dreams), but so far no luck....

[justasgood]

Great picture and fantastic job to date. Cheers!!

[Chip Duffer]

That's a great pic!

Looking better this week. Nice to hear that your treatments are working.

[me05501]

 

Beautiful picture. I love your part of the world.

[berndgeurts]

Didn't you know? For Ben Hogan to appear, you have to say his name three times into a corn cob and walk around the green for 1 minute. After this the field of dreams will do it's magic.

Great picture and still a great project. I'm impressed.