During the month of August, we prayed for rain. We wished for water to fill the quarry. We celebrated over .15" of rain and were on the edge of our seats as Jim Duncan predicted even the smallest chance of rain. Well, the rain dances can stop. We have received over 8.25" of rain during the last two weeks. Irene and Lee have deposited more water over this golf course in 10 days than we have seen all year. The rain has filled the quarry and saturated the golf course. The bunkers washed, trees fell and rivers rose but all in all we made it through OK. The good news is that the course drained beautifully, all new sod, seed, and sprigs stayed in place and we are no worse for the wear. The ten day forecast looks fantastic for growing grass and next week, we look forward to pre and post-emergent herbicide applications, drainage projects and greens topdressing.
We avoided any real rain last night and as a result, we were able to get some real work done today. We mowed the range tees, the short game practice area, the tees, green surrounds, greens, some rough and the newly sprigged areas. We also solid tine aerated greens surrounds and fertilized greens, green surrounds and the newly sprigged areas. The greens are progressing wonderfully and we are currently mowing at .300". To put this in perspective, our normal height of cut is .125" (an 1/8 of an inch) and we began mowing the newly seeded greens at .450"(slightly less than a 1/2 inch). We are about halfway through the lowering process. The lower mowing height will encourage lateral growth and allow the creeping bentgrass to tiller out and improve turf density. We will be playing catch up on mowing this weekend due to the wet conditions. All of the fairways may not be able to be mowed until Sunday. Have a great weekend!
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| #17 Green looks great. |
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| Solid Tine Aerating the Collars and Approaches. This does not pull a core but does relieve compaction of the soils. |
