We finally caught a mole creating all of that damage on the 8th green. With a really mild winter, this little guy started creating damage in February. I don't think this is the last from his family but we will keep repairing the damage this little guy left.
My equipment manager Mitch purchased a new prism device that represents the actual mowing heights that we have been using for many years. While looking down at it you can see the cross section of the cut and the actual height of the mowed grass. The prism I purchased over 20 years did not go down to the mowing heights we are at in the industry now. Did you know that the green speeds in the mid 70's at Oakmont we 7'6"? Our goal in season is above 11 feet and yesterday they were 10.5 so we are "inching" our way up!
Over the winter I purchased a root shaver. The shaver is on the end of a string trimmer and it grinds down the surface roots which helps playability and eliminates damage to our mowing equipment. We weren't holding our breath on it working very well but it works incredible! Here is a picture after the roots were shaved from 10 fairway with the root area topdressed and seeded. We finished all of our fairway root shaving and have started on tees then we'll move on to the rough tree roots.
