Mother Nature sure has dealt the State of Wisconsin and the Midwest some very serious problems. The extent of the storm will be felt for many months. The farmers, I am sure are going to be going through some difficult times ahead. We will all feel the impact of this weather in our lives. We are very fortunate to be given a break in our county, I have seen and heard some horrible stories from Golf Course Superintendents across the State. There are some golf course that may be shut down for weeks. The storm totals for the our area is 9 inches of rain for the month of June so for. I am amazed that the golf course is really not too bad right now. We worked all day today shoveling the sand in most of the bunkers. There are still a few that have some standing water in them but I am sure the water will be gone soon and all the bunkers will be back in shape by Sunday. This tasks has now been completed six times this year.
The saturated soil conditions can be detrimental to the turfgrass plants. What we need to do is aerify the greens and fairways to help accelerate the drying process. The use of solid tine aerification allow oxygen to get into the soil and removes the trapped gasses. My plan will be to aerify the greens Monday through Wednesday next week and also spike the fairways next week. This may take a little more time considering the fact that we have two outings next week. I will do a few holes a day and hopefully be completed Wednesday. I think we all know the benefits of our cultural program here at Hawks, this time we really need to get some air into the soil profile.