Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Mother Nature has not been kind to us over the last 8 days. On Tuesday, July 19, the golf course received a harrowing storm that deposited 1.5" of rain and knocked down or damaged over 25 trees. In the following days, the heat was turned up and we sustained 5 straight days with a heat index over 110 degrees. Today and tomorrow don't look much better. During this time, the putting greens started showing real signs of stress especially where they are not impacted by fans. The turf around the fans has held up strong and is a real testament to the ability of the fans to cool the surface. Last night, the course received another 2.5" of rain and countless amounts of internal flooding and debris. It has been a very difficult week on the turf and our staff and one our team has worked hard to endure.
In the effort to prevent further turf stress, the decision has been made to close the golf course until the greens show signs of recovery and the weather breaks. This is a preventative measure to protect the putting greens and allow for healthy playing surfaces during late August - November.
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| In the foreground you can see general thinning and decline. As you get closer to the fan, turf health rapidly improves. |
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| We have selected fan locations based on a number of factors including line of play, impact to play, wind direction, and benefit to turf. The fans are angled down and calibrated using a Kestrel Weather Meter to measure wind speed generated by the fan and to maximize our distance of throw. |
How did we get here?
Overall, the spring and early summer of 2016 yielded high rainfall totals with May 2016 being the wettest May on record and June being the 9th wettest June. This provided great growing conditions for the tees, approaches and fairways but did not allow the putting surfaces to develop the necessary rooting to thrive in the summer. When greens stay wet, the roots do not have any incentive to grow down and "seek out water." On top of the wet spring, our team has been battling nematodes which are parasitic round worms that attack the roots of the bentgrass putting greens. The microscopic nematodes are very difficult to eradicate and are viewed similarly to a disease. These compounding factors led to a compromised root system that could not sustain the intense heat and humidity over the past week.
Where do we go from here?
The decision to close the golf course was preventative. Our team believes that for the most part, the greens can recover with the reduction in traffic and some very careful handling. We will need to plug and seed a few edges to aid in recovery. We will continue to be aggressive in the Spring of the year to continue to amend our putting green mix with core aeration, deep-tine aeration, linear aeration and drill and fill to improve drainage and encourage deep rooting.
Is there any other work that can be accomplished while the course is closed?
Yes, we plan to continue to renovate the tree line between 13 and 14 as well as the rough areas on 9 and 18. We still have a lot of storm cleanup from the past week including bunker repair, stump grinding, damaged tree removal and debris removal.
Have a great week,
Jordan Booth, CGCS
