July at Preston Trail

The summer has been flying by and I have really been enjoying my time at Preston Trail. The summer months have been warm and to keep the bentgrass greens cool, and to prevent them from burning up, fans have been installed on all of the greens, The fans help circulate the air and prevent stagnant air, in turn this prevents the greens from burning up and dying in the Texas heat. The average temperature on the greens is 98 degrees so watching them closely is an important job.

 President George W. Bush playing a round of golf at Preston Trail

Tools of the trade  

Leveling out the fan oscillators 

Using the skidder and Toro workman to install the fans 

Hooking up the electrical components to the greens fans

Installing the greens fans 

Installing the greens fans 

Pulling the fans from the storage, the fans are used from June to October. 

Spraying herbicides and wetting agents on the greens 

Flags at half mast after the Dallas police officer shooting, in which 5 officers were killed 

A lot of turf squares prepped and ready to be layed 

Cutting cups

POGO

POGO and Field scout moisture meter. Tools of the trade 

Cutting the intermediate cut of turf around the approach 

Cutting a putting green 

Preston Trail Golf Club, Dallas, Texas 

Thanks for reading,

Austin P

July 2016

Its beginning to heat up in Dallas, and the greens are drying out a bit. Some watering has been done as well as more raking and fly mowing traps. Along with watering greens I have also been mowing putting greens and helping edge the traps.

The fans on the greens were recently put back out (they are taken down every year around September and go back out in June) and installing them was about a week long process. Many of them had malfunctions in the wiring or setup of the oscillators and have since been fixed and are keeping the greens cool. Learning a lot and the summer is flying by.

Stay tuned for another blog with pictures of the fan instillations.

Thanks for reading!!!

Austin Pettit