It seems like just yesterday we were completing our bunker renovation and discussing another course improvement project for this year with Professional Golf Services. The wet spring pushed our ‘ideal’ start date back four to six weeks but we were finally able to get the 2016 course improvement project underway in late July.

There were two components of the project; the larger part of the project being the second component: Minor tee work on #6 and #9 blue tee. Clean-up unwanted turf around the greens complexes and #14 fairway.

The blue tee on #6 had some drainage issues to be addressed. The tee was stripped, additional drainage was added and laser leveled to slope one percent towards the back of the tee and away from the slope coming from the cart path. The blue tee on #9 was enlarged to the back and right to offer a different look off the tee and address some winter shade issues without removing the trees to the left.

The majority of the work was removing some of the unwanted turf in the zoysia grass around the greens and in #14 fairway. Cordillera’s course is unique in that we have cool season grasses and warm season grasses. Simply stated, cool season grasses like cooler weather (75-degree daytime and 50-degree nighttime) and warm season grasses like warmer weather (90-degree daytime and 75-degree nighttime).

Our greens are cool season bentgrass, our fairways are warm season zoysia grass and our rough is warm season bermudagrass. One grass is always trying to invade the other at any given time of the year. It is an ongoing challenge keeping the greens all bentgrass, the fairways all zoysia and the rough all bermudagrass.

The process to clean up the zoysia immediately around the greens is threefold: spray the contaminated area with a non-selective (kills everything green) herbicide, strip the dead turf and lay new zoysia sod. The goal is to focus on a three to four inch perimeter around the green and some areas farther out. The herbicide will help prevent the rogue bermudagrass from returning through the sod. New zeon zoysia sod is coming from Bladerunner Farms in Poteet, Texas.

The scheduled completion for this project is the first week of September. It’s hard to believe by the time you read this the project will be complete, children will be back in school and summer will be ‘over!’

Mark Semm is the Director of Agronomy at Cordillera Ranch. He can be reached at msemm@cordilleraranch.com or 830.336.3710.