Happy 4th of July

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

What a great day.  Independence day is easily one of the best days of the year.  The golf course is holding up well and the greens are handling the heat very well.  The fans are definitely helping as is our conservative approach.  Greens will be soft as they have still have holes in them from Monday's venting (solid tine aeration.)  You will notice a blue tint to the greens.  This is a combination of few fungicides and turfscreen that all have a blue dye to them.  These products are great at protecting the turf but do have an unnatural look at times.  You can see the initial color of the spray from this picture.  The color dissipates over time but the efficacy of the products lasts 7-21 days based on rate and weather. 

Outside of losing power, another battle during storms is the fun game of finding just how much the lightning has destroyed the irrigation system.  This week, even with lightning and surge protection, lightning has impacted 4 sprinklers, the irrigation computer, the base station which communicates to the satellites and one satellite.  It  is always fun to come to work and find that heads have not run or are still running as was the case on #12 today and #16 Sunday.  Lightning travels through the electrical wires and destroys key components which make the head stick on.  For this reason a head in the dead center on #12 fairway ran for about 6 hours last night and that fairway will play cart path only today.  We have already received a replacement computer and a loaner base station.  I repaired the head on #12 and #16 this morning and the satellite on #11.  Luckily we have great support from Smith Turf and Irrigation and Toro NSN.  Thank you to Bobby Mason with STI for getting our computer and base station back up and running very quickly. 

Lightning found this tree between 16 and 17 and the current found a head nearby.  This head had to be repaired before the entire fairway could function properly

This picture is nuts and the best reason that I can imagine to get off of the golf course during a thunderstorm.  Lightning can strike anywhere just as it did here in #10 fairway.  You can see the current running out from the strike.

This reminds me of a great quote from Lee Trevino; "If you get caught on the course during a thunderstorm, hold up a 1 iron.  Not even God can hit a 1 iron."

This is a quick reminder that the course will be closed on July 17 and 18 for fairway aeration and topdressing.  Enjoy the golf course over the next few days but remember that it will be very hot.  The temperature looks to break by Sunday or Monday but the foretasted highs between today and Saturday are 98, 101, 98 and 103.  Stay cool and protect yourself from the heat. 

Have a great holiday,

Jordan Booth
jbooth@willowoakscc.org