Thursday, April 27, 2023

Spring 2023

 G&G Blog – Spring 2023

As we come to a close to the 2022/2023 winter season we would like to thank everyone for another great season at PPCC and wish everyone a great summer where ever you may spend yours.

We are seeing great growth and recovery in the greens. The prolonged cold wet winter inhibited the bentgrass growth and recovery. The roots are actively spreading and deepening. The roots are back down to about 6-8 inches and lengthening. We are beginning to back off the greens and begin to prepare the greens for the summer stress. The stimp meter ha\sd been 12-12.5 through the El Cannip. We have now backed off a little bit around 11 to give the greens a break. We do this by raising the heights in small gradual increments and ramping up fertility during this perfect growing period.

You may have also noticed we have been verti-cutting the greens over the past few weeks. This is done to remove old and decaying leaf tissue and to make room for the new leaf tissue. This also helps to manage and control the thatch and organic matter in the greens. By actively managing these items we will also help to prepare the greens for the summer stress months and to aid in disease management during these periods.

We have also be performing a significant amount of brushing. The brushing helps to stand the grass up vertically and make sure that a ball is rolling on the tips of the leaf blade and not the side. Brushing is also very instrumental for increasing turf density and alleviating grain in the grass.

We will be aerifying the greens on May 8 & 9. We will use ¼ quad tines about 3 inches deep. These will be tightly spaced small holes that displace roughly 8-9% of the surface area. Upon punching the holes we will topdress with approximately 50-60 tons of sand to fill in the holes and amend the soil. We expect the holes to fill in about 7-10 days. We will raise the heights considerably once we aerify and slowly lower them back down but not to their current heights. We will maintain higher heights of cut on the greens after aerification and throughout the summer to protect the health of the bentgrass during the stressful summer months.

As we enter the summer months you will see the Greens and Grounds Department become more active in hosing or syringing the greens throughout the day in play. We respectfully ask that you please be careful and help keep our staff safe during this practice. Please pause and/or yield for the staff to complete their job as this is a very difficult and strenuous task during the summer stress months.

The transition back to Bermuda grass is in full swing. It is very encouraging to see how much Bermuda grass is coming through the overseed on the fairways, tees, and approaches given what a prolonged cold winter we had. As we move towards summer, we will make a series of applications to slowly and methodically remove the overseeded ryegrass. The first half of the application will be April 24-25 and the second application will be May 8 & 9. This product will suppress the ryegrass for about 6-10 weeks before finally removing the overseed grass completely by beginning to mid-June. The grass will not go brown or disrupt play at all. The grass will lighten to a pale green. This is the same process we have used for 4 years and has been very successful.

We have several projects coming this summer that will begin in May.

We will be adding 6 fans to the golf course. We will be adding fans to 4,5,6,10,11, and 12. We are currently working with APS to run power in the golf course from Pinnacle Peak Road under the oleanders that will power all fans on 4,5,6. The power will enter close to the white tee on #5 and will branch off to each green from that location.

We will be running electricity for 10, 11, and 12 from the HOA gate on Pima & Country Club Trail.  Pinnacle Peak Country Club Estates HOA was kind enough to aid us in finding a power solution for those holes. We finalized an agreement and will be reimbursing the HOA for the power for the months we utilize the fans of June, July, August, and September.

Players will see a significant amount of trenching being performed on 4,5,6, 10,11,and 12 for several weeks. This will begin the week of May 8 and will take until July to complete. We hope to have 17 of the 20 greens with fans installed by the 4th of July.

We will be improving the drainage to the area to the north of #8 green between the homes where the drainage water enters the golf course. This will be done to fix the water that is damned up above the turf and also to remedy the need to pump the water after every storm. This will also improve the aesthetics of the area and be a long-term solution to the drainage problem. We will be lowering all the turf on each side of the bank and adding a 4-foot wide cement channel that will let all water through to empty the drainage basin completely after storms. The project is set to begin in the middle of May and should take several weeks to complete.

We will be re-grading and improving the desert to the west of #16 between the tee and the homes. This will be primarily a grading project to slow and hold the water to control the erosion issues in the area. We will re-direct and brace several embankments to help the erosion issues for the golf course and the homes in the area.

We hope you enjoy your summer. We look forward to seeing you on the course and for those of you who do not spend your summers here we will see you when you return.

 Regards – PPCC Agronomy Team


Fixing Ball Marks on Chipping Green during morning prep


Morning Preop at the Putting Green in the Dark

Hydrojecting Collars to promote root depth

#9 - Thursday Men's Member Guest 



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#8 Friday - Men's Member Guest

Rolling #17 Thursday of Men's Member Guest

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#5 - Wednesday of Ladies Member Guest

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Collecting Core Samples for Soil Testing


The finger is pointing to the lighter green with the seed heat is bermuda grass. The darker green is ryegrass. 


Greens mower with brush assembly