golf course update

We are in a great weather pattern finally after so much rain the sun sure feels great.

We have been able to get a lot more work down now that we are not pushing sand in the bunkers daily.  this week I was able to topdress the greens and approaches this in turn allowed me to firm up the greens and now the sped of the greens is back.  I have received many compliments today about the golf course conditions and appreciate that very much.  Everyone on my staff has worked very hard in the last 2 weeks to get everything back in great shape.

I was also finally able to spray all the new fescue on the golf course this week using a gramaicide and herbicide to kill the weeds and undesirable grasses today after only 2 days I am seeing some nice wilting of the weeds in all the areas we sprayed . Next week I plan on mowing all these areas one more time.  this should clean up the dead and dieing plants and give the fescue a chance to fill in.  I may have to make another application in the fall but after this application we should really start to see the look that we want.  I have heard some comments regarding this project.  As I stated in the beginning of the work this will take some time.  I am not fertilizing the areas as you would normally during a seeding project and I am not applying very much if at all water to this areas.  why am I doing it this way well I am hoping that when we start to see some addition growth these areas will be thin and still provide the look that we want.  Please be patient I am confident that this is working.  I am also removing irrigation heads that water in the fescue areas to date I have removed close to 35 irrigation heads from the golf course.  The less water going into the fescue the less growth we will have and hopefully have a thinner stand. I feel that towards the end of the year we may see some seedheads on the new fescue if this does not happen please do not worry next year they will look great.


There is a article on the USGA website about the US Open and the condition of the golf course I have attached a link for you to read the article is very good and quite interesting.

http://www.usga.org/news/2010/June/Beauty-In-Eye-Of-Beholder/

Have a great 4th of July weekend and hopefully you will be able to get in a few rounds of golf


Neil 

Update

With just under 6 inches of rain in my rain gauge in the last week the big questions is will it every end.  We have been able to keep up with the storms for the most part but redoing the bunkers which seems like daily is not much fun. 

Some of the problems with this wet weather are very high disease pressure, continued development of organic matter. low oxygen levels in the soil, shortened root system.


When you add all these up I think you could be asking for trouble down the road.  what I have to do right now is start a process to alleviate or at least help correct the issues at hand.  I have not been able to top dress the greens in 4 weeks now.  This is the longest stretch that I have ever went between application of sand.  The ground temp are optimum  for the development of excess organic matter.  I have noticed puffy turf lately this is a signal for me.  I have to apply some sand on the greens and will most likely do this Monday and Tuesday this upcoming week.  I also have to open up the greens to allow them to breath in some good air.  We will be needle tining the greens in conjunction with the topdressing this week.  They have been saturated for 2 weeks which is a troubling issue.  I will also spray the greens to help control some growth a micro nutrient fertilizer along with a good fungicide will be added to help increase rooting and protect the turf from the upcoming July weather.  You may have noticed that the moss on the putting green is getting worse.  I sprayed the putting and chipping greens on Thursday last week to help control the moss on the greens.   I will also add the same herbicide when we spray the greens to help control the moss on the rest of the greens.  As I have said before moss is a though one to control and this wet weather has really set me back in my plan for the moss control. 

The rest of the golf course seems to be doing just fine.  The fescue on the back nine is in great shape and most weeds have been controlled.  I will spray the back nine a few more times this year and should end up with a great stand of turf.  The front nine fescue was mowed this week in preparation for them to be sprayed but the rain just keeps setting me back on the front nine weeds contorl.  We did reseed a few areas and they are coming in nicley.

During the storm on the 22nd we had a direct lighting strike on hole number 10.  I have a few picutres that you may like to see.  The lighting hit the ground behind the bunkers on the right, traveled through the ground to a wire which was 6 feet under ground and also hit the irrigation line which completely blew the pipe apart.  then the surge traveled through the wire and into the irrigation controllers on the hill between 10 and the range.  as you can see in the photos that we had a very serious problem.  both controllers were completely set on fire and destroyed.  I was very nervous at the time thinking the surge went through the rest of the golf course but as of yesterday we have replaced the 2 controllers and found that all but 20 irrigation heads are working. the surge  destroyed the electric components that will have to be replaced.


 

Lets all hope this is the end of the weather pattern we are in and that everyone can enjoy some nice sunny days.

Neil