Greens Encroachment Barrier System (GEBS) Installation

A few weeks back we installed a new encroachment barrier system (GEBS) around our paspalum chipping green.  The paspalum we have installed on our chipping green is a new variety know as 'Platinum' paspalum developed by Dr. Ronnie Duncan with Turf Ecosystem.  This turf was installed on our chipping green to be evaluated for it's potential as a putting surface here at The Preserve.  This variety was chosen due to it's ability to live in high sodium environments like are seen here at our course due to our sodic irrigation water source.  This turf has shown the ability to grow more aggressively than bermudagrass which is why we must install a barrier around the green to maintain a smooth consistent edge to the green.  This barrier allows our staff the ability to keep the paspalum from growing into our collars by providing a track system for our edging device.

The green is being prepped for the barrier installation.  You can see the darker green paspalum that has begun to overtake our bermudagrass collar.



Tom Wait with GEBS pulling in the barrier



Terry with GEBS guides in the barrier with assistance provided by Course Superintendent Jeremy Stevens



Once the barrier was installed we stripped up the contaminated collars and replaced it with new certified '419' bermudagrass.



Photo of a nice clean edge around our chipping green after completion of the project.











Thanks to Tom Wait with GEBS for the quality of work performed here at The Preserve Golf Club.









Time for Overseed

Next week will begin the overseeding process for our tee complexes and target greens on the course.  We will start promptly Monday morning and should have the majority of the course finished by the end of the day.  After the seeding has been completed the tee tops will have a fresh sanded appearance with irrigation being ran a couple times during the day to promote rapid germination for the next 5-7 days.  Once adequate germination occurs we will begin mowing.  The first mowing usually occurs 2 weeks after the seed hits the ground.  During this process the tees may be moderately wetter than normal but this should be only a mild distraction to the golfer.  So over the next 2 weeks please be patient with our staff and realize you will have some beautiful overseeded tees to play from till early March!

Vandalism to 15 Green

Yesterday morning we came in to work to find severe damage from 4 wheelers on hole number 15.  This damage occurred on our fairway and rough but was most severe on our putting surface.

Damage to 15 green

Seeing something like this happen to your facility is very disheartening to everyone who works so hard to make our course the place that it is and to all of you that come to play our beautiful course.  We have reached out to the local law enforcement and hopefully these individuals will be caught.

In the mean time, I just want to say how proud I am of our staff in the way that they stepped up to repair the damage to our green.  Normally on Friday our schedule is to mow and go around noon.  Our crew did not hesitate or waiver from the task in front of them and they had the green back open for play by the end of the day.  I was blown away with how quickly they were able to make the repair with such high work quality.  The surface should be very puttable now with only repair seams being visible.  Working with people like this make it a pleasure for me to come in and work along side them everyday!

Below are photos documenting the damage and the staff working hard on the repair.

View from 15 fairway looking towards the green.

Damage to 15 green



Damage to 15 green



Crew making tremendous progress

Almost done!