# New Here - So I Built A Golf Green...



## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

I just joined this forum but have been lurking for ideas for the past couple of months. Back in March, we were sent to work from home and work became pretty slow. I was pretty bored and my wife suggested that I finally build the golf green I have always wanted. I got to work designing my green and finding a mower. I first removed the sod, added 14 metric tonnes of sand and tilled that in with a couple inches of my native soil. Next came the stone picking, hand raking and rolling, and raking, and raking, and raking...... I was able to seed with Selectus Tournament Bent (50% MacDonald Bent / 50% Flagstick Bent), on May 20th and as of this week I am cutting at 0.25" with a pretty good grow in despite a very dry July that resulted in some brown patch / dollar spot, and a battle with cutworms! Here is a link to a topic I posted on golfwrx that is much more detailed, and includes more info than the photos below. For background, I am a total novice at grass maintenance, (apart from working part time on a golf course grounds crew in my early 20s), and I have been given some great advice from the Superintendent at my local golf club.

For mowers, I started out with the Toro Greensmaster 1000 that I got for a steal, ($250CAD) from a friend who works for Turf Care Products. Then, just last week I was very fortunate to be given the Jacobsen Eclipse 122F from a retired pro who decided he wasn't going to use it. He had been following my project on a Facebook forum we are both part of and reached out to me. My next project will be the addition of a collar and fairway approach to add depth for approach shots. The Toro 1000 will be the mower of choice for that task.

https://forums.golfwrx.com/discussion/1825924/covid-practice-plans-green-building-please-tell-me-im-not-nuts/p1

The Plan


Sub-leveling


Prepping the Seedbed


Current Picture


My Jacobsen Eclipse 2


Finally got some rain and turned around to this view


Photo from the grow in and installation of sod around the back collar


Some solid tine aeration because the soil became a bit hydrophobic


My Toro GM1000


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## CarolinaCuttin (Sep 6, 2019)

This is awesome. Fellow WRXer here, going to put in a green this fall, I'll be using this as guidance! What height was your first mow at? I'm not sure how low I'll be able to take the bent given it's grown on native soil, but I bet I can get it to 0.150. Hoping to get speeds of around 10 after double cut and double roll. Have you enjoyed doing it so far?


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

My first mow ended up being at 5/8" and I moved it down to 1/2" about a week later. July was a struggle with heat, lack of rain, etc. so I left it at 1/2 for a while to let it fill back in. Currently I am at 1/4" and my target will be 5/32". The floating head on the new Jacobsen mower should reduce scalping but I can already tell that I will require quite a bit of top dressing to level things out. 0.150 seems like a good goal and from the advice my local Superintendent gave me, the lower you cut it, the more it costs you.

Oh, and yes, I have really enjoyed doing it so far but tend to get a bit OCD about things. It has been a lovely distraction. So far the only things I would have done differently would be to have a better preventative fungicide / pesticide plan. I figure I lost a couple of weeks in terms of getting it fit for play due to the disease stress in July and the bout of cutworm.

Are you starting from scratch and seeding, or do you already have bentgrass established?


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## CarolinaCuttin (Sep 6, 2019)

@DbShep Im starting from scratch, just did my first RoundUp spray last week. It's going to be about 2000 sqft. Hoping to seed around September 15th. Ideally I will avoid the hot weather this way and allow it to grow and develop and avoid disease. I'm going to get propiconazole and azoxystrobin for my preventative program. I've got all the foliar nutrients already, I'll probably be spraying once a week during the growing season.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

CarolinaCuttin said:


> @DbShep Im starting from scratch, just did my first RoundUp spray last week. It's going to be about 2000 sqft. Hoping to seed around September 15th. Ideally I will avoid the hot weather this way and allow it to grow and develop and avoid disease. I'm going to get propiconazole and azoxystrobin for my preventative program. I've got all the foliar nutrients already, I'll probably be spraying once a week during the growing season.


Nice! I'm a little over 1200 sq ft and wish I had made it a bit bigger. Are you going to amend the soil with any sand? I found it really helped with the sub-leveling to smooth everything out. Hand raking with a 3' rake was not my favourite part though. Against some urging from folks on Golfwrx, I tilled native soil into my sand. My superintendent friends thought this would provide some organic matter to hopefully aid in water retention. So far this has worked well.

When I first ran into issues, I think I had a bit of pythium blight from damping off and I tackled that with azoxystrobin. It is very easy to make the mistake of overwatering once the seed has germinated and begins to establish.

As preventative, I believe azoxystrobin is good for 28 days after application.

I was very excited to be given the Jacobsen mower as it will allow me to build a fringe and approach to effectively make my green bigger to hit into, (I can set my Toro 1000 up for the fringe cut). I can play from various positions on my lawn from 50-60 yards and in.


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## Kallgren (Nov 10, 2018)

Looking forward to this topic, i'm A bit over one year into my own putting green odyssey. I'm a bit smaller, 20 x 30 paces on 1 acre.


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## Chris1 (Apr 22, 2020)

from the pics it looks like you hired golf turf pros . very nice design and execution


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Thanks! I have a couple of friends who are superintendents locally and have been able to pick their brains for ideas. Apart from the mowers, I had all of the equipment already to build everything and the Covid break gave me lots of time.


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

Subscribed!

We have similar properties and situations. I'm on the cusp of suburbia, edge of a few hundred acre fields that are slowly being developed. I'm friends with the local super too - I drop off my equipment with his to get serviced, and we trade lots of ideas.

I used to manage 7K, which was a cakewalk compared to 1.4 acres I have now. He really opened my eyes up to what's important and what's not in terms of mower maintenance, but also the mentality behind managing acres instead of K.

My biggest pain (sometimes) is rust in the fall. When the farmers harvest the corn or soybeans, it kicks up that rust in the air - you can literally see the cloud - and I have to apply a rust preventative as the corn rust gets all stirred up, make sure I wash it off etc. I also get lots of voles along the creekline or by the house, lots of mice.

But the plus side is I'm pretty close to farm suppliers, and since I'm effectively a sod farm, that helps a lot.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

The difficulty I am having is that I live in Ontario Canada and pesticide / herbicides are banned for cosmetic treatments of lawns. I'm trying to balance out biological treatments and natural practices. I do have some farm friends who are able to get me small quantities of fungicide when needed but I have to be careful with that. The benefit is that I live in the countryside and don't really have close neighbour's.


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## duncangweller (Jun 3, 2020)

This is so cool. Nice work on the green, it looks immaculate.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Back on watering duty, (also keeping myself hydrated).



This is my first try with bentgrass and HOC is 0.25" currently. I had some cutworm and between the damage they caused and various weeds I have handpicked, I have several small spots that still need to fill in. I think I have the cutworm under control now, so would you guys overseed these areas or just wait for them to grow in. I notice worm castings in all of these areas each morning as well and they squish down into ugly spots when my front roller hits them.


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## Sinclair (Jul 25, 2017)

You sure know how to make an entrance!

Welcome to TLF. There are threads specific to Canadians and Ontarians under "Hometown Discussions" dealing with pesticide bans and sympathetic vendors who ship from south of the border.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

So, I sprayed Malathion last week in hopes it would help my cutworm problem. I thought it had because I found dead caterpillars on the green a couple mornings in a row. Last night while I was watering at dusk, I noticed more emerging to the surface. I gave it a dose of Malathion again, (it is all I have access to at the moment given restrictions in Ontario), and went out about an hour later to see the extent of the problem. I picked a bunch of caterpillars off of the green last night and about 20 or so more that were dead / dying on the surface this morning. I guess this will be my life for the next few nights....

Anyone have any other tips that may help rid me of this problem? If it hadn't been for the damage these hungry pricks cause, everything would be filled in and I'd be at playing height by now.


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

Whew that sucks. Can you put down a general insecticide or is that unavailable?


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

DbShep said:


> ...Anyone have any other tips that may help rid me of this problem?


*Beneficial NEMATODES!!!*!!!!!

See cutworms in menu on left side of page .... https://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes

My own success story, here: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=15013&p=242893&hilit=Wire+worm#p242893


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

HoosierLawnGnome said:


> Whew that sucks. Can you put down a general insecticide or is that unavailable?


Unfortunately not. Even with Malathion I am spryaing for off label pests. It's broad spectrum though so should work. I'm watering right now and scouted for cutworm first. Tonight I only picked off 2 in my 1300 sq ft. The lesson is that the spray works better as a contact spray than a residual. I'll keep this routine up for the next few nights but considering I picked about 50 cutworms off last night and this morning, I'll call this treatment a success.


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

Sounds like its working! Well done making do!

I've had pill bug problems before on renovations. Mostly when things are too damp and rotten. I dont bother treating them, just reseed and adjust water.

The only pesticide I always apply is grub preventive. We get a lot of damage if we dont apply it, mowing so close. One year i only applied it in previous problem areas and the non treated areas took a hit. I blame the farm fields, creeks, large and wet, open yards for it. The farmers dont spray at all, which is good, just makes for a giant bug magnet.

Even so i still get some insect damage spots on this much area, that i usially start off thinking are fungal problems.

Is it worth an hour of time and $70 to treat the whole yard for insects? Or let them do their thing and find some balance? I let em go. They are probably doing a lot of good for my other plants.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

HoosierLawnGnome said:


> Sounds like its working! Well done making do!
> 
> I've had pill bug problems before on renovations. Mostly when things are too damp and rotten. I dont bother treating them, just reseed and adjust water.
> 
> ...


@HoosierLawnGnome We have a large vegetable garden, chickens, cats and dogs, and horses, so I am wary of spraying large areas and limit it to a manageable area around the area my green is in. The rest of the yard is too big for me to get water to, so it is basically natural and left to itself. The golf green will need to be treated differently for sure and I'll need to find the right balance to handle it. The farm around our property is treated with fungicide on a regular basis and glyphosate when there are beans there, (I'm a bit worried about spray drift but so far my normal yard hasn't been affected). I'll continue my malathion routine and nightly scouting for now in hopes that I have the cutworm beat.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Cheers! Thursday afternoon is my big lawn day. Tge lawn is cut and swept and the golf green is cut. Today I tge secondary cut of fringe and fairway approach with my rotary mower. This will slowly be lowered and top dressed until I can cut it somewhere around 1/2" or 3/4" with my Toro 1000. Later tonight I'll head out in the dark and scout for more cutworms.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Watering in some fertilizer tonight and hoping it speeds the recovery of the cutworm damage. I also flipped the front brush down on my Jacobsen Eclipse 2 today to help break up ant hills and worm castings. It laid some nice stripes.


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

Looking sweeeeet!

Whatcha using for fertilizer?

I put down some agricultural grade fertilizer the other day. Not a big deal now while it's growing in, but no way will it work when it is mature.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

HoosierLawnGnome said:


> Looking sweeeeet!
> 
> Whatcha using for fertilizer?
> 
> I put down some agricultural grade fertilizer the other day. Not a big deal now while it's growing in, but no way will it work when it is mature.


For now I have Urea, a 16-16-16 farm fertilizer, and a Scott's brand lawn food (33-0-3). The fertilizer granules are bordering on too big now that the green is cut at 1/4" so next year I will chat with my superintendent to see if he can order me a few bags of the stuff they use. The Urea I melt down in hot water and apply with my pump sprayer.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

These cutworms are still a pain. I scouted again last night and picked off a few so decided to spray some more Malathion, (all we can get up here in Canada). Between last night and this morning I picked off another 20 or so. I'll continue with this routine until the numbers are down. I'm not finding any that are in their beginning growth stages, which is a good thing and the ones I am finding can't be far away from the moth stage. I think I'm through the worst of it, but it's frustrating as everything was looking great and now I have a mess of holes where they have eaten the grass off.


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## Chocolate Lab (Jun 8, 2019)

That is incredible! Looks like heaven.

So I guess you know there's no excuse for three-putting anymore...


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Busy afternoon on the grounds crew. I cut the green and approach, then took a break to watch some golf on TV. Next I made a seed shaker out of a mason jar to help me spread seed into the areas damaged by cutworm a little easier. After that, I gave a light top dress in those areas with peat moss and worked it in with the back of my bunker rake before enjoying a nice Juicy IPA and watering things in.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Another busy night for the grounds crew. Last time I topdressed I noticed more small pebbles in my sand than I would have liked, so today I used an old window screen to create a finer sand.



Then I got busy spreading by hand, (fanning out with a square mouth shovel), though I must look for a decent drop spreader I could use to get more even coverage.



Several passes in multiple directions dragging the push broom, and everything was ready for a watering.


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## Tlox (Aug 13, 2020)

Looking good!!


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

Nice! Does it have the woven mat thing going on now?


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

HoosierLawnGnome said:


> Nice! Does it have the woven mat thing going on now?


Yes, all woven together pretty well though it has been seeded since May 20th. It's my first time growing bentgrass and I expect it takes a year or more for it to get a strong thatch layer. Everything was coming along great and then I had an issue with cutworms. If I hadn't run into cutworm problems, I would be at putting height now. I've decided to leave it at 0.25" for now in hopes that it fills in, (it is healing well but a bit like watching a pot boil....). I spread some seed this past Sunday and hopefully that speeds the process up but I'm not sure how well new seed will do in the bare spots when the green is being cut at 0.25". I have changed my mowing schedule to every 2 days for now and I'm going to start leaving the brush on the front of my mower up for a while hoping that the rollers help push the grass horizontally into the bare spots rather than sweeping it up and cutting more of the blade off, (this could be wishful thinking).

My mower with front brush.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

I managed to get out for some putts and chips tonight, (obviously slow because I'm still cutting at 0.25", but it was still plenty of fun). I sure am going to love this addition to the yard! I also ordered 3 practice hole cups and flags today from Bayco in Winnipeg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbEQMTwoa74

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQNpq7N2-YA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U3YjoIno-A


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## SumBeach35 (Jul 11, 2019)

Awesome


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## gm560 (Feb 22, 2018)

This is so sweet. I feel like Kevin Costner could emerge out of that corn field at any time.... tin cup costner that is.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

gm560 said:


> This is so sweet. I feel like Kevin Costner could emerge out of that corn field at any time.... tin cup costner that is.


I'm hoping for Payne Stewart.


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

Yesssssssss. Sweet, sweet reward


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## Tlox (Aug 13, 2020)

Looking great!

Do you have any pictures of what your damping off looked like? Wondering if I have a little bit of that in two spots at the moment


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

@Tlox These maybe aren't the best pictures. It happened in early June, so about 2-3 weeks after seeding. When you wet the grass blade, it will look brown and greasy on the tips of the blades and when dry they look shriveled. I treated with Azoxystrobin and adjusted my watering schedule to ensure that the leaf blades dried out between cycles. Humidity over night, and dew were also factors I think. Now if there is a heavy dew, I run my sprinklers in the morning for a short period to wash it off, (syringing so to speak). I watered the first round of Azoxystrobin in and then treated a couple days later as a foliar treatment.


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## Tlox (Aug 13, 2020)

Thats definitely what I have going on as well. I hit it with azoxy and iprodione last night and pulled the watering schedule back. Might try liquid fert vs granules and see if that gives it a boost.

Thanks!


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Tlox said:


> Thats definitely what I have going on as well. I hit it with azoxy and iprodione last night and pulled the watering schedule back. Might try liquid fert vs granules and see if that gives it a boost.
> 
> Thanks!


The Azoxy should work. You can't heal the damage that is done, but you can stop further damage and it will grow through it. Most important in my understanding is to adjust the watering schedule to give the grass blades a chance to dry out between applications. Also, catch your clippings for the time being, (if you aren't already), so you don't spread blight to the patches that are healthy.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Because I'm a sucker for a challenge....Today I set up the Toro 1000 at a cut height of 3/4" and took a first run at my approach and collar. Some scalping as expected but the weather is on my side in terms of avoiding too much stress. Next up is to start top dressing to smooth things out and once the stress of the scalping subsides, I'll hit the area with some Par3, (careful not to get it on my bentgrass). In checking the cutworm damage on my green, the seed I put down last weekend is starting to germinate in spots which is great. The bad part is that the dew worms seem to pop up through these bare patches which creates some castings and disturbs the seed so I'm not sure how effective the over seeding will be. They are however growing in and my superintendent friend suggested cutting without the bucket for a few rounds to build up some thatch so I'll try that. Another exciting development is that my cups and flags are supposed to arrive today and if so, I'll put them in this afternoon. There is a small corner of the green that got washed out and is bare and I plan on transplanting the 3 hole plugs into this area to give it a boost.


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## Tlox (Aug 13, 2020)

Really looking good. What kind of hole cutter did you get?


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Tlox said:


> Really looking good. What kind of hole cutter did you get?


I have an Eagle Precision Hole cutter. It is a slide hammer style and I bought it used from an area course superintendent.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Dew worms!!!! I didn't think they were that big of a problem and then I went out at night with a headlamp and it looked like a horror film. After exhausting several cultural methods, I finally resorted to an application of Sevin and this morning there were no castings this morning. I'm hoping this gives the bare spots from the cutworms time to grow in before the worms come back. This afternoon while I wait for the girls to get off the bus, I'll shake some seed on the bare patches and cross my fingers there is enough time for it to get started before the weather gets too cold. My superintendent friend tells me it should be fine. I'm in need of another top dressing, but unfortunately it rained on my sand pile before I could get a chance to spread some.

Green view Sept 29



Worm Damage Sept 29


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## Tassoty (Oct 2, 2020)

@DbShep It looks great. :thumbup: Believe it or not, I created an account so I can comment to your post. Have you heard about Tea seed meal fertilizer? It does seem work. I recently renovated my backyard and it is nightmare, worms eveywhere. I am ordering a product called Casaway from Planet Turf snd I hope it gets here soon. Here is a good article about this issue. Waiting to see more photos.

https://www.usga.org/articles/2011/10/course-care-controlling-earthworm-casts-21474843517.html


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Tassoty said:


> @DbShep It looks great. :thumbup: Believe it or not, I created an account so I can comment to your post. Have you heard about Tea seed meal fertilizer? It does seem work. I recently renovated my backyard and it is nightmare, worms eveywhere. I am ordering a product called Casaway from Planet Turf snd I hope it gets here soon. Here is a good article about this issue. Waiting to see more photos.
> 
> https://www.usga.org/articles/2011/10/course-care-controlling-earthworm-casts-21474843517.html


I have read about tea seed meal but have not been able to find it available in Canada. I did chat with my superintendent about it and he told me that the application rate is quite high which makes it hard to water in on short turf. He mentioned about trying a similar product but discontinued because it built up on his rollers which caused a height of cut issue while cutting his greens.

Still no worm castings, and I spread some seed three days ago but there has been a lot of rain and I'm not sure if it washed away. I'm hoping to see some germination in the next couple days. Last night after a brief rain, I went out and practiced some bunker shots before bed. The green speed is still slow for putting, but it is adequate enough to make chipping fun. I'm currently cutting around 7/32".



I have a thread on golfwrx that shows the whole process if you want to follow along. https://forums.golfwrx.com/topic/1714676-covid-practice-plans-green-building-please-tell-me-im-not-nuts/


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

That looks really cool. Is your mower easy to operate/ maintain?


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Jeff_MI84 said:


> That looks really cool. Is your mower easy to operate/ maintain?


I have two mowers. I cut the green with a Jacobsen Eclipse 2 that is a hybrid mower, (gas engine and electric reel), and a Toro Greensmaster 1000 that I use to cut my fringe and approach. Both are easy to use and so far to maintain though I do have a friend who works for Turf Care Products and I can pay him to do the more complicated maintenance like grinding the reels, etc.


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

Reel mowers look like fun. I don't think I've ever seen any where I live. I'm not a golf guy, but that green looks super cool.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Jeff_MI84 said:


> Reel mowers look like fun. I don't think I've ever seen any where I live. I'm not a golf guy, but that green looks super cool.


Thanks. You can find the Toro GM 1000s around. Golf courses use them but mostly when they are growing new greens and need to keep the bigger triplex mowers off of them. I don't know what the market is like around you, but up here they can be found for around $1000 - $1200CAD. I got a screaming deal on mine from a friend who works for a Toro service company and picked it up for $250. For now I am using the Toro only to cut a lower height of fringe and a bit of a fairway approach and it is currently set at about 7/8" because I haven't yet leveled that area with a sand top dressing. It has an 11 blade reel and doesn't really like cutting that high but I plan on lowering that cut height to a bit over 1/2" next year. From what I understand, they are pretty bulletproof units. The Jacobsen was given to me buy a pro who decided he wasn't going to use it. I posted a picture of my green on a golf forum I'm part of and he messaged me and offered it up. It has a flex head which handles contour a little better than the fixed reel on the Toro.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

November 9th and 20 degrees Celcius for the past 3 days. Last year at this time we had 4" of snow! Yesterday I gave the entire lawn a trim, cut the green and approach and spent about an hour chipping around waiting for my girls to get off of the school bus. It'll soon be time to put this beauty to bed for the winter.


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## etakmit (Oct 31, 2020)

the ball cleaner and bench are a nice touch


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

etakmit said:


> the ball cleaner and bench are a nice touch


Thanks! The bench is for the school bus riders, and the ball washer might be the only one currently in use in Ontario due to the pandemic. I got it from a superintendent friend and restored it since it had about 20 years of student paint jobs on it.


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## Alohacessna (Sep 18, 2020)

I just saw your post for the first time and love it. At the beginning of September I brought in 25tons of 80/20 sand mix and seeded PureSelect bent. I have had some similar unfortunate battles with fungus like you have. I got hit hard when I was out of town for work and it sure did a number. It's working it's way back after some heavy fungicide work and watering schedule changes. I wish I had gone in on a preemptive fungicide schedule for grow in.

I haven't decide if I want to go full putting green on a portion yet or not. I'm currently maintaining it at 1/2" for now. . Have you been using PGR at all and how often have you been mowing? Keep up the updates and love seeing the work.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Alohacessna said:


> I just saw your post for the first time and love it. At the beginning of September I brought in 25tons of 80/20 sand mix and seeded PureSelect bent. I have had some similar unfortunate battles with fungus like you have. I got hit hard when I was out of town for work and it sure did a number. It's working it's way back after some heavy fungicide work and watering schedule changes. I wish I had gone in on a preemptive fungicide schedule for grow in.
> 
> I haven't decide if I want to go full putting green on a portion yet or not. I'm currently maintaining it at 1/2" for now. . Have you been using PGR at all and how often have you been mowing? Keep up the updates and love seeing the work.


That looks great! I haven't used PGR here as I live in Ontario Canada and we have a pesticide ban that makes things like that hard to come by. In the summer when the grass was growing strong I would cut every two days at minimum. In the fall now that it has slowed down, I have been cutting about 3 times per week. Right now I am cutting at a hair over 3/16 with a goal to get down to a bit over 1/8 by next summer. I had a battle with cutworm and dew worms and as a result have a bunch of damage that needs to grow in. Considering that I only seeded on May 20th, I think I did quite well....especially considering that I have never been one to fuss over my lawn. If you want to follow my whole adventure, I created this thread on Golfwrx that shows the entire process from start until now. https://forums.golfwrx.com/topic/1714676-covid-practice-plans-green-building-please-tell-me-im-not-nuts/


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

Wow - looks great! That's filled in nicely!

No snow here, yet - and things are still growing. I need to mow today!


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Peek-a-boo! Sometime in the next couple weeks I'll be able to tell how well my green survived the winter. It's been under snow since Christmas but no freeze thaw cycle, so I'm hoping it's done well.


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## Tlox (Aug 13, 2020)

DbShep said:


> Peek-a-boo! Sometime in the next couple weeks I'll be able to tell how well my green survived the winter. It's been under snow since Christmas but no freeze thaw cycle, so I'm hoping it's done well.


 We are thawed out here now south of the border, have a bit of snow mold in a few spots though. Can't wait for things to start growing again


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

What a difference a couple days makes! So far I'm happy with how this pulled through the winter. Looking forward to watching things green up.


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## CarolinaCuttin (Sep 6, 2019)

DbShep said:


> What a difference a couple days makes! So far I'm happy with how this pulled through the winter. Looking forward to watching things green up.


Wow!! Well done, sir. You have great color coming out of winter. At least from the picture it looks 100% disease free. 10/10!


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

CarolinaCuttin said:


> DbShep said:
> 
> 
> > What a difference a couple days makes! So far I'm happy with how this pulled through the winter. Looking forward to watching things green up.
> ...


A few minor spots so far that could be grey snow mold. I'll see how it greens up in the coming weeks. I need to topdress and over-seed when the weather allows to help some damage from cutworm and worm castings in the fall.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Well, 15C in my part of the world today so I put some fresh fuel in the mowers and gave the green it's first mow of the season. Still some damage to grow in from the cutworms and possibly from worm castings last fall. My Super Intendent friend tells me that if I mimic a verti-cut by scratching those spots up with a fan rake, it will encourage some lateral growth. Failing that, I'll brush some seed in with my topdressing in April once the soil temp allows. It was nice to enjoy a pint by my green while practicing some chipping and putting tonight. It'll be nice to have a whole season of use!


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## The_iHenry (Apr 23, 2019)

That looks awesome


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Well, it's Master's Week. Today I mowed the green, knocked the HOC of the apron and fringe down a bit and admired my progress. 1 year ago, was 14 days to flatten the curve......well, I'm still working from home and now we are staring down the barrel of a province wide stay at home order. This crazy idea from last spring is looking less and less crazy! If you need me, I'll be under this tree, putting, chipping, watering, enjoying beer......


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## SumBeach35 (Jul 11, 2019)

Looks great @DbShep


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

That's waking right up!


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

HoosierLawnGnome said:


> That's waking right up!


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## Tlox (Aug 13, 2020)

What type of grass is your fringe and apron?


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Tlox said:


> What type of grass is your fringe and apron?


The fringe at the back was sod that I installed when I built the green. It is Kentucky Blue Grass. Around the front, it is just the grass that was in my yard. In my area I expect that is a mixture of Kentucky Blue Grass, Creeping Red Fescue and Perennial Rye though I'm not positive, (the house is 150 years old and I have no idea when the lawn was planted). I bought seed from my local feed store to over-seed the lawn and it is the mixture noted above.


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## Tlox (Aug 13, 2020)

Nice, thanks. Mine is all KBG around it and I'm overseeding in some of the champion GQ perennial rye. Doing some sand leveling and hoping to have it down to .75" HOC on the fringe and approach by the end of summer


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Tlox said:


> Nice, thanks. Mine is all KBG around it and I'm overseeding in some of the champion GQ perennial rye. Doing some sand leveling and hoping to have it down to .75" HOC on the fringe and approach by the end of summer


Nice. I took mine down to about 0.625" in the approach and apron last week. It needs to fill in a bit, and I need to keep up with leveling as well. It's still pretty bumpy and will likely need overseeding as well but first I have to take care of the weeds.


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## Mark102 (Oct 6, 2018)

You're living my dream. My wife wants a pool and I want a golf green. We have a small stream that run through the back part of our property we own a little bit on the other side of it. My dream would be to build a green on the other side of the stream with a bridge.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Mark102 said:


> You're living my dream. My wife wants a pool and I want a golf green. We have a small stream that run through the back part of our property we own a little bit on the other side of it. My dream would be to build a green on the other side of the stream with a bridge.


Sounds like a perfect spot. I haven't run a final tally for my green, but the most expensive individual component was the seed at $450. I bought my first mower for $250 from a local golf course supply company, was given a second mower and apart from that have spent money on a bit of sod for the back collar, and some fertilizer, sprinklers etc. Off the top of my head, I would guess that I have maybe around $3000 total invested, not including labour which was all done by myself.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

A bit of light rain for most of the day which was much needed. I managed to catch enough of a window to mow the green and snuck some practice in after dinner. Things are starting to green up nicely.


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## RyanH (Sep 11, 2019)

This was a good read and inspiring. I'll probably be trying to build two greens in the next year or so. I'm in Ontario but a couple hours north of you and have some extra land on the property to do a couple greens and maybe 3-4 tee decks and probably have about 150 yards between greens.

It seems daunting in my head but your read was inspiring. The prep work was my biggest question. I've read and bunch and the PGA has old videos on YouTube of green building from the 90's that will put anyone to sleep if you're having trouble sleeping at night. They are great and detailed but over the top for a bakyarder like myself.

Did you dig out some native soil/organic matter or just add the sand on top, till to mix and then shape it with the kubota? My prep wprk is the biggest Grey area. No need to worry about drainage?

Lastly where did you get your bent grass?

This looks great. With the farmhouse in the back, it just looks great.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

RyanH said:


> This was a good read and inspiring. I'll probably be trying to build two greens in the next year or so. I'm in Ontario but a couple hours north of you and have some extra land on the property to do a couple greens and maybe 3-4 tee decks and probably have about 150 yards between greens.
> 
> It seems daunting in my head but your read was inspiring. The prep work was my biggest question. I've read and bunch and the PGA has old videos on YouTube of green building from the 90's that will put anyone to sleep if you're having trouble sleeping at night. They are great and detailed but over the top for a bakyarder like myself.
> 
> ...


Thanks Ryan,
I asked several of my Golf Superintendent friends about the best method that I should follow and we all decided for a backyarder that mixing sand with my native soil would leave some organic matter in the ground to hopefully retain a bit of water. Water....is the most important part of this and I am on a dug well so worried about running dry. In an ideal world, you would mix sand and peat moss in an 80/20 ratio 12" deep to build your base but that would be pretty costly due to the cost of peat moss. For my green which is 1200-1300 sq ft, I removed the sod with my loader, brought 14 tonnes of sand in and tilled it in with the top couple inches of my existing soil. It has worked well but in hindsight more sand would have been better. I live down the road from an active pit, so the 14 tonnes of sand only cost me about $150 including delivery. Because failure was a real possibility, I didn't get elaborate with shaping at all and rather went with the lay of the land, mostly so that if it didn't work I could just replace the bent grass with normal grass and return it to lawn. Looking back, I wish I had went a bit bigger. I purchased my bentgrass from Plant Products Group in Ancaster, (it's expensive...about $400 for a 25lb bucket), especially considering you only need about 1 - 1.5lbs per 1000 sq ft.

I have a thread on golfwrx that might be of interest to you as I have documented the good and the bad from construction to current. It's a long read but it will save you from making any mistakes I made. Having a reliable source of water is most important, (well, having a reel mower with at least 11 blades is equally important), as well as having a friend who is a farmer......(think contraband).
https://forums.golfwrx.com/topic/1714676-covid-practice-plans-green-building-please-tell-me-im-not-nuts/


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## RyanH (Sep 11, 2019)

Thanks for the info, I'll check back and use it and the forum link as reading material.

Still working on house right now to get moved into, then into landscaping. It's a bit of a daunting task, as it's a large property that was an old quarry/gravel pit decades ago.

There's some pics in the journal link below in signature line. Would be happy with a green 75% as nice as yours.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

RyanH said:


> Thanks for the info, I'll check back and use it and the forum link as reading material.
> 
> Still working on house right now to get moved into, then into landscaping. It's a bit of a daunting task, as it's a large property that was an old quarry/gravel pit decades ago.
> 
> There's some pics in the journal link below in signature line. Would be happy with a green 75% as nice as yours.


Apart from the time involved, I haven't found any of the process to be overly difficult, (knocking on wood as we speak), though I haven't seen a terrible amount of disease / fungus stress. Everything has went pretty well. Given time and I see access to water isn't going to be a problem, there isn't any reason you couldn't build a high quality green. Feel free to message me with any questions and I can help you along. Where are you located roughly?


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Lawn day today. Not bad for April 23 in SW Ontario.


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## The_iHenry (Apr 23, 2019)

DbShep said:


> Lawn day today. Not bad for April 23 in SW Ontario.


Incredible!


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## RyanH (Sep 11, 2019)

> Apart from the time involved, I haven't found any of the process to be overly difficult, (knocking on wood as we speak), though I haven't seen a terrible amount of disease / fungus stress. Everything has went pretty well. Given time and I see access to water isn't going to be a problem, there isn't any reason you couldn't build a high quality green. Feel free to message me with any questions and I can help you along. Where are you located roughly?


About an hour west of Ottawa.

I'll read through your other link, thanks for the extra info. I'm guessing I would tackle greens and work out from there on fairway as equipment is mostly needed for green work, and it would be hard to get into that area once fairway is established without wrecking everything else.

Right now I have 100s of rocks to get off the surface of the soil. Rock bucket on bobcat seems to work well.

I need a good irrigation plan as well.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

RyanH said:


> > Apart from the time involved, I haven't found any of the process to be overly difficult, (knocking on wood as we speak), though I haven't seen a terrible amount of disease / fungus stress. Everything has went pretty well. Given time and I see access to water isn't going to be a problem, there isn't any reason you couldn't build a high quality green. Feel free to message me with any questions and I can help you along. Where are you located roughly?
> 
> 
> About an hour west of Ottawa.
> ...


I had more rocks and stones than I would have liked as well. Two things I don't miss....picking up stones and rocks, and leveling with the 3' rake.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

Today I picked up a salt spreader, (it also doubles as a fertilizer spreader and has a conversion chart relative to Scott's spreaders on the back), so I could more easily do frequent light topdressing on my green with sand. My sand was dry enough for it to work pretty well. Previously I was using a square mouth shovel to fan the sand out on the green but getting even coverage was tricky. While not perfect, this is much better and with practice I think I'll see it pay off in a smoother surface. In total I spread 2 wheel barrow loads of sand before brushing in and giving a light watering in.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

@DbShep FyI, i moved your thread to the lawn journal area.


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## The_iHenry (Apr 23, 2019)

g-man said:


> @DbShep FyI, i moved your thread to the lawn journal area.


Is it too late to nominate it for LOTM?


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## Togo (Jun 7, 2017)

@DbShep I don't golf but I love this green. Awesome job!


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## occamsrzr (Apr 27, 2020)

Holy smokes! This is good planning and great execution. Thank you for thoroughly documenting your process.


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## DbShep (Aug 10, 2020)

occamsrzr said:


> Holy smokes! This is good planning and great execution. Thank you for thoroughly documenting your process.


Thanks. The golfwrx link has more detail than this thread as I started it before I found this forum. It's been a welcome distraction from this pandemic. Now....we just need a bit more rain and some heat to wake things up more.


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