Irrigation Showing Its Age

 

Lucky for us this pipe broke right at 6:15 while the fairways were still running and Andrew was able to spot it in time.  Had this happened in the middle of the night it would have been a complete mess today.  Victor was able to get it fixed pretty quick and the fairway will be operational by the end of today.  

Ready for Divots!

 

We know having 156 of the best amateurs in the world each day using our range, the tee is going to get beat up for 4+ days.  We have been thinking of the best way to clean up the tee each evening to allow us to get it done more efficiently and it looks like we will repurpose our turf sweeper to help with this chore.  If all goes as planned, we can now get the range cleaned with probably half the men and half the time.  This will allow us to use men to help do other important tasks during evening preps.

Changing it Up

 

Normally we would be venting with our deep tine aerifiers right now, but with the dry weather, upcoming heat and the US Am only 3 weeks away, we decided to use the hydroject.  This machines injects water to make a small hole to allow the greens to breathe.  Once done, we will blow off any excess sand and you would not know we did the greens.  If we were to make the normal 5/16" hole, we would be chasing wilt during the day as the greens would dry out too fast.  You have to be flexible with your programs based on weather conditions, time of year and events.  A deep tine vent would be done in about 4.5 hours with 2 machines and this will take 8-12 hours with 2 machines.

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.  

Pond Treatment Coming

 

The Curly Leaf pond weed has taken over the pond on #7.  Our pond contractor will have to come and make several treatments to get it under control.  This is going to take a few weeks to control since the pond is shallow and there is quite a bit of fish activity.  Also, once the weeds begin to die, they will take up a lot of oxygen in the pond, which can affect fish.  This is why you hire pond professionals to make these treatments.