The Truth About Venting

 

This morning we vented greens, which normally gets done on Monday mornings.  With our busy outing schedules and early outing shotguns, Mondays are not an option until we get to August and September.  With the Arcola Cup on July 8, the US Am Preview on the 12th and a Member Guest on the 14th, it is now or wait another month.  The pictures above show the process, a tractor punches pencil sized holes in the greens and it is followed by a roller to smooth the surface.  For good measure, we did a stimpmeter reading following the practice and we rolled 15'.4".  No impact on speed, trueness or smoothness.  The only thing now is the the greens will dry down much quicker over the next few days but it is a good trade off after the heavy rains of late. 

Final Preparations Underway for Invitational

 

Venting was done last week, this week we are doing a little verticut on greens before the Invitational on Thursday.  This will help thin the surface a bit to allow for firmer conditions and smoother greens.  The forecast now looks like heavy rain Wednesday night, so looks like more bunker work on the horizon.  Was hoping to get a break from the rain for a week to provide the best possible conditions for the event.  Staff will somehow getting everything back together before Thursday afternoon.

Bunkers Needing Attention This Week

 Deja vu all over again!  Two straight days of 1"+ thunderstorms after a weekend of 2.5" rains and the staff has had their fill of repairing bunkers.  Most of the bunkers drained great and some sand had to be pushed back up on faces.  One of our proactive practices is taking this vibrating aerifier and going into the bunkers to loosen up the floors.  Heavy rain after heavy rain and our already firm sand becomes way too firm and this has been a great tool to allow us to get them back to great playing conditions relatively quickly following the storms.