I haven't updated the blog in two months and now I have twice in two days. I had three other thoughts from my observations etc around the course. As I am writing this, the golf course is receiving a nice rain fall. We need it. The staff was able to mow greens, tees and fairways ahead of the rain this morning. We also applied soil amendments to greens and tees just ahead of the rain. It is a great benefit to do this prior to rain so that we don't have to water these products in at a later time.
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| Dolomitic Lime (Calcium and Magnesium) being applied to tees. This product provides necessary soil nutrients and increases pH which allows for better uptake of nutrients by the turf. |
1. Please don't turn fans off when you are playing. Fans give the turf a great advantage and help us provide great putting conditions in our hot/humid region. When the air temperature and humidity is low, we turn the fans off. Fans are considered a temporary immovable obstruction (TIO) in the rules of golf giving the player relief from stance, swing or line of sight (line of play.) If the physical fan is in your way at all, please take a drop from the closest point of relief, no closer to the hole. Permanent immovable obstructions only allow for relief from stance or swing. Use the rules to your advantage.
a. If you absolutely feel like you need to turn the fans off to play the game due to the wind that they are producing, please turn them back on. When controlling fans, please use the black switch. The red switch would be comparable to switching off a breaker in your house while the black switch would be like a light switch. The black switch is much easier on the fan's motor.
2. You will observe turf discoloration in the shape of tire tracks around greens, especially in the rough. This happens after an application that we just made to prevent summer weeds. Tires lay the turf over and make it more susceptible to discoloration from the preventative weed application. This will go away in the next 7-10 days.
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| This really shows where the mowers turned prior to the application. Tire tracks lay the turf down and expose the entire side of the blade of grass to the preventative weed application. Discoloration will be evident but will cause no long term damage. |
4. (Alright there are really four notes) The golf course is closed on Tuesday to allow for maintenance practices since the course is open on Memorial Day. The sod around greens in knitting in nicely. We plan to mow and topdress these areas on Tuesday when the course is closed. Players are allowed relief from any sod seams when the lie of the ball, stance or area of intended swing is interfered by the sod seam. Once again, use the rules to your advantage.
Enjoy the weekend,
Jordan Booth, CGCS
jbooth@willowoakscc.org
