Big Weekend and Aerification Preparation

The hot and steamy weather has continued this week, however as I am typing this it looks like the temperatures are starting to cool off and we might actually have some rain moving into our area. Hopefully I didn't jinx it because we could really use a nice rain as I have been begging for some the past couple of weeks. We have had a very busy week here at the club and we are going to have another busy week next week. Our day yesterday was very busy as we did our final preparations for the annual Member/Pro/Guest event that was held yesterday. I was very proud of my staff as I feel they presented a very good golf course for all of the competitors. It has been a true testament to the dedication of my staff as they have been working their tails off to keep the golf course in great condition during this hot stretch of weather. Our zoysia continues to love the heat and humid conditions and the greens and rough are doing as well as expected considering the tough growing conditions that we have had over the past couple of weeks. Today we are finishing up some mowing and last minute detail items in preparation for the busy holiday weekend that is ahead. It looks like the weather is going to be great and the golf course conditions will hopefully be the same. Also we are doing some last minute preparations for our greens aerification which starts next Tuesday. Our plan is to use a combination of 1/2" and 5/8" coring tines on our greens. These are the same tines we used this spring and last year. I have attached a picture below showing the tines loaded into the aerifier. I also attached a picture of one of our sand bins full of sand and ready to go to fill the holes in one the greens. We will use roughly 75 tons of sand during our aerification. Recovery time will be roughly 10 to 14 days and the greens should be back close to 100%. The greens are ready to get some much needed oxygen down to the roots and get some fresh sand to continue to firm them up even more. I hope you have a safe and great holiday weekend and I hope to see you all on the golf course as well!

Hot Temperatures Continue

The heat and humidity have continued over the past several days with highs in the upper 90s and lows in the mid to upper 70s. Along with the temperatures the humidity levels have been extremely high which has made it rather unpleasant and uncomfortable. The golf course has continued to hold up very well despite the hot and humid weather. Greens have softened up a bit from the humidity and the hand watering that is required, but all in all I feel they have stayed relatively firm through this weather. All of our greens are at that point in the year where they are ready to be aerified and opened up to allow that much needed oxygen to get down into the soil profile. We try to supplement this through out the season with the solid tine and venting practices we do, but nothing we do can simulate core aerification. A lot of times it seems like once we aerify the greens it is like hitting the reset button for the year as they firm up and take a breath of fresh oxygen. Speaking of aerification just a reminder that we will be aerifying our greens on Tuesday September 2nd. This week we are also continuing to do some spot sodding of a few more zoysia areas in the fairways and maybe a few of the damaged bunker faces. We need to try and have as much sodding done in the next week or so to allow the sod to knit down and root in before the fall frost arrive. Also this week we are starting our preparation on the course for the annual Member/Pro/Guest event on Thursday trying to get everything mowed out and trimmed up. It looks like the weather is going to cool down a bit on Thursday which will be a welcome site and make it a more pleasurable event. Our next chance of rain is scheduled for sometime on Friday and Saturday which would be a huge help after this hot stretch. I hope everyone has a great week and is ready for College Football to start on Thursday like I am! This is my favorite time of the year!!

Heat Wave

Looks like this week we are in store for a little bit of summer over the next four days. Highs are forecast to be in the mid to upper 90's through the weekend. Instead of being on the offense like we have been able to be all summer with verticutting, topdressing, rolling, etc. we will have to be a little defensive this week with our greens management. Our rolling practices will be less and we will have to be watering a few times more on the greens by hand during the day. So if you come across my guys as they are cooling a green I would appreciate you giving them the time to finish up quickly and get out of your way. They should only need a few minutes to cool the greens down. Another practice we use is utilizing our portable Sub-Air units and back pack blowers to blow air into the drain lines of the greens. This helps the root zone of the greens to cool down as the air coming out of the drain lines is 60 degrees and it also helps give the roots of the plants some much needed oxygen to help them survive during the hot and humid days. I have attached a picture below of a back pack blower installed on one of our greens. We use plumber caps to block off the drain lines forcing the air up into the green profile. It is a very beneficial practice and one that we have been using over the past couple of years. Also this week we are going to continue doing some sod work on the short end of #14 fairway. I know this area got hit hard by our winter this year due to how much moisture this areas tends to hold from the clay soil that is underneath. Our plan this winter is to install some drain lines in this area to hopefully eliminate some of these issues. I hope everyone has a great week and stay cool as the summer weather is on it's way!!!

Amazing Weather Continues

Our amazing weather pattern has continued to provide us some awesome weather over the past week or so. High temperatures have been in the low 80's to high 70's and the lows have been all the way down into the 50's like they were this morning. I don't think I have ever worn a jacket in August until I did this morning. I will gladly do that every year if need be!! The golf course has dried out nicely over the last two days after we received another very beneficial 1.75" of rain on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. That puts our total last week to around 3.5" of rainfall for the week. Over the last two days we have been venting our greens to help dry out the surface and will be applying a thin coat of topdressing sand on Wednesday to help keep them smooth and firm. Hopefully the zoysia sod farm will dry out today so that we can continue to do some patch sodding of some zoysia areas. We are starting to get down to the end of our sodding window as the weather will start to change causing the growth of the zoysia to slow down drastically. However we still have a couple of good weeks of time and we will try to maximize it. Another item this week that we are hopefully going to get marked off our to do list is to repair the rain shelter on #12 green. This shelter has been leaning for a long time and we are going to install some new post and hopefully stabilize the structure and make it's appearance more pleasant. Lastly I wanted to drop a quick reminder that our fall aerification of the greens is coming up quickly and our day for that is Tuesday September 2nd. The golf course will be closed that day as we will try and get all 18 greens completed. Have a great week and get out and enjoy this dynamite weather!!!

Good Heavy Rain

I have been asking for a nice heavy rain and we finally got one last night. We received 1.75" of rainfall accompanied with some high winds. The golf course however held up pretty well. Bunkers took a hit and so did a few limbs on some of our trees but all in all everything else withstood the storm pretty well. The staff is currently out mowing greens, repairing bunkers, and doing some limb cleanup. Carts will be on paths today as the fairways are very wet. However I do think with the dry conditions leading into this rain that things will dry out fairly quickly for the weekend. This week has been another fantastic week here in the maintenance department. We had a few hot summer days but the golf course really held up well. The little shot of rain we received on Sunday was very beneficial to the course and helped us get through those hot days a lot easier. Our fairways have really come around over the last week or so. It has been a long slow summer for the Zoysia grass but they are finally catching their stride I feel. Patching in the fairways has continued this week as we were able to do some more on #6 and #8. We spent the first part of the week checking the sand depths in our bunkers and moving the sand around to make our depths more uniform and consistent. However when you get rains like we did last night it makes the process of putting them back in shape a lot harder because they are washed out in places and we have to spend a lot of time fixing them. It looks like the extended forecast looks pretty good over the next 5 days or so as high temperatures are supposed to stay in the upper 80s which isn't too bad for this time of the year. Just a reminder that our fall aerification is scheduled for Tuesday September 2nd. I hope you all have a great week.

Busy Monday

We finally received some much needed rain over the weekend as we had .75" on Sunday. The rain came at a very good time as things were getting rather dry around here. Due to the dry conditions before the rain carts are off the paths today as the moisture soaked into the soil rather quickly. After a thunderstorm like that things really perk up and look good and makes you realize just how good water from "Mother Nature" is compared to our irrigation water. Today we have had an extremely busy day. We spiked, fertilized, and sprayed our greens with a fungicide and plant nutrient product. The spiking will help work some oxygen down to the roots and help the surface of the greens dry out some so it doesn't sit in wet conditions with temperatures increasing. It looks like for at least the next couple of days we are going to once again get some summer time temperatures with highs in the mid 90s. We are currently mowing rough, tees, greens, green banks, and doing some weed eating around trees today in hopes of getting the course mowed out before the hot temperatures hit this afternoon and tomorrow. Our plan this week is to continue working on some fairway areas and installing some sod, checking sand depths in our bunkers as the sand has moved around a bit and our depths are inconsistent, and finishing up spraying clover/nutsedge in our roughs and fairways. Have a great week and I will update everyone on our progress later in the week.