Getting Sprays Done

We finally broke down and did a full spray to our experimental (no spray) fairways.  To date, we made 1 light application for dollar spot back in early June when we started to see the fungus.  Now with the rain forecast for almost a week straight and high humidity we cannot take the chance that we will make it through.  You cannot control brown patch with nutrients and the weather now is conducive to many diseases.  When we can control the water it is much easier to control fungus, but the weather we are having now is too tough to predict.  With the Met Am, the Clambake and the Morgan Hoffmann outing all in the next 3-4 weeks, we cannot be playing catch up.
I am proud that 1/3 of our fairways or 10 acres have only received 1 full fungicide spray to date.  I am confident as long as the weather does not get too crazy this spray should get us to Labor Day. 

The Weather Is Not Cooperating

What a stretch.  Dry conditions, followed by rain during the Stoddard Cup last week which delayed play and shortened the event to 27 holes.  That was followed by high humidity and triple digit temperatures and then yesterday a pop up thunderstorm flooded the course and lightning took out the big oak by the 1st tee.  Luckily nobody was injured but the weather has been extremely difficult to deal with.  Our next big event this Friday the Arcola Cup the forecast is calling for much of the same, 1" of rain and thunderstorms.  Now, we are moving up to a 7:30 shotgun to try and get at least 18 holes in.  I can deal with the humidity but when you cant control the water applied to the grass, things can get dicey quickly.  Again, my crew always rises to the occasion, whether we have to start at 4am or stay late, they make it happen and make us all look good.  They are the unseen heroes at Arcola.

Hot Mulch!

We had mulch blown into our flower beds this past Monday evening.  Usually we do the mulch first and then add flowers but with the weather our contractor was backed up and could only come Monday.  Mulch is usually very hot to begin with and on top of that sitting in the truck for a few hours when they applied it, the heat stunted all the annuals and actually scorched the bed edges.  The annuals while ugly will recover and already are pushing new flowers out and the grass will green up as well but goes to show you how something so basic can become a headache.

Just A Reminder

A reminder about our bentgrass conversion program on fairways.  Here you see the yellowing from a recent growth regulator application (Trimmit) that stunts the poa for about 3 weeks.  Once the poa is stunted we put out some nitrogen applications to encourage the bentgrass to really push growth.  Throw in the mix we allow annual bluegrass weevils to eat the poa to some extent and we have a great ability to lessen our poa populations.  Remember we also allowed the fairways to seed out which weakens the poa even more.  Notice here on the 12th fairway (our weakest fairway) how much bentgrass we have.  The bentgrass populations have more than doubled since we started this program and removed a bunch of trees to allow more sunlight.

Lawn Area Nearing Completion

The bulk of the heavy lifting is done.  The black tee above the rock wall is done but we cannot finish our tie ins until the stair case is installed.  A few smaller rocks are needed on the wall to tie into the steps as well.   Some minor sodding is left to do along with 2 sets of blue stone staircases which will require a lot of plywood and careful work not to disturb all the finished work.
The good news is the sod was laid on Thursday and the area has been mowed twice already and topdressed and sprayed. 

We're Trying!

More rain, same old story.  We are making progress but now we are dealing with mud.  The good news is the retaining wall is just about done, the new black tee up by the patio will be getting mix today and we are going to attempt to start drainage today.  If all goes well, we should have the mix on the lawn area by the end of the week and then hopefully next week get the steps in, install electric and irrigation and lastly sod the area.  A lot of moving parts but the weather has not been cooperating.

Old Practice Green Going Away

Now that the new practice green is constructed and growing nicely and the 18th hole is completed, we are moving on to removing the old practice green.  The 6000 sq ft practice green will be bulldozed to create a 10,000 square foot lawn area that will serve as the blue tee, a dining area, a tent area for big events and other recreational purposes.  The tee will be sodded with the same grass as our range tee and mowed at the same height.  When completed this will mark the end of a very busy spring for our staff who stepped up and did a great job on all the construction work.