Tedious Maintenance

Now that it finally rained a bit, the pumps can get a break and we can send 4 staff members out to remove the nozzles on every head on the course.  Over time small particles find their way into the heads and alter the coverage of the sprinkler head, leading to discolored or under watered turf.  While this is an extremely time consuming process, it is vital in the health of our turf this summer.  We already found numerous heads that were clogged to some degree.  Without any measurable rainfall for almost 4-6 weeks, the golf course is at the mercy of our sprinkler heads and design to get through the dry spells.

Better Late Than Never

 

With some much needed rain in the forecast we started to apply some compost material to our stressed out rough areas.  The areas that are stressed are from cart traffic, inaccurate irrigation and the lack of topsoil in the ground.  The compost will act as a supplement to help combat all the issues above.  Ideally we should do this either late fall or early spring, but we never had great growing weather this spring to try and incorporate into our roughs.  We will provide pictures of how good it works in the next few weeks.

Another Invitational in the Books

 

What started as a lousy week with smoke filled skies and chances of rain turned into a beautiful 3 days for the Invitational.  Cooler and drier weather allowed us to have the course play the way it is meant to be played, firm and fast.  A culmination of great agronomic programs, weather and our staff had the course set up similar to a US Open.  By Saturday afternoon the course finally needed to be hydrated significantly but all in all the turf held up well.  A big thanks again to my staff for getting the course in top condition despite no rainfall and less than ideal growing weather.  Each year we see the course take another positive step in the right direction.  Once a new irrigation system is installed, it will be less stressful on the staff trying to keep the course looking and playing consistent.

Successful Project

 

The fruits of our labor are beginning to show.  When we embarked on the project to improve sunlight on 10 green, a lot of poor trees had to be removed, understory growth had to be removed and we knew we would create some short term visuals of the neighboring strip mall and route 4.  Now that our screening plants are maturing and our hydroseed is growing it is evident by the amount of sunlight on 10 green and how healthy it has been that this was a successful project.  This green gets ample sunlight until mid afternoon, a huge improvement from the past.

Weather Effects Ponds Too

 

This is 11 pond.  Last week we had early signs of algae starting.  Last Thursday we got frost and all the algae sunk to the bottom.  By the end of the weekend the algae was in full bloom.  When our pond contractor came yesterday to treat the algae, he noticed a lot of little sunny fish that were dead.  This was definitely caused by the temperature inversions in the pond over the last week or so.  Oxygen levels are fine as our contractor tested the pond before treatment.  We will get 50% control with this algae treatment and then they will re treat next week again once temperatures reach normal temperatures.

Aligning Fairways

 

You will notice red dots on all the fairways for the next week or two.  These dots will be centered on every fairway so we can have our black and white mowing patterns balanced.  Over time the center lines change and take away from the appearance of the course.

Here Come The Pond Weeds

 

Its that time of the season again, the dreaded Curly Leaf pond weed.  Arrives in May and is gone by mid to late June.  Our approach this season will be different than last.  We are going to allow this weed to run its course in the pond on 7.  The pond is far too shallow (only 12-18" deep) and has too many fish to treat.  Once the weed starts to die back, it sucks the oxygen from the pond which is detrimental to aquatic life.  Last year our pond contractor did several minor treatments and still had a decent fish kill.  We knew it could happen and they approached it carefully.  Had the pond been another few feet deep, we would not have any issues.  While this will be visually unappealing for a few weeks, it will go away by the summer months.  As far as this weed, the juice is not worth the squeeze.