Week of July 25th

 

The heat and humidity this week had the grass and staff on edge.  Last weekend was brutal.  Near record high temperatures over the weekend and the heat and humidity this week have made this a tough stretch. The crew has been doing everything they can to keep the course in great shape. 

After the Monday outing we started off the week tackling our weekly sprays and catching up on mowing.  The crew completed most detail work early in the week so we could concentrate on water management for the rest of the week.  

With the lack of rain over the last 10 days our fairway edges where the irrigation coverage is weak started drying out.  To prevent over watering the middle of the fairways, on Wednesday the team applied wetting agent only to the struggling areas and hand watered the product in.  Wetting agent products help with water infiltration and breaking up tight soils.   

Edges of fairway highly infested with poa-annua started thinning out with the high temperatures, lack of rain and poor irrigation coverage.  Poa-annua is a weak rooted cool season grass that does not like the summer months so having it thin out is no loss to me.  The down side to having poa-annua thin out is we've had some weeds break through.  The lower picture above is of the 8th fairway when I first started 4 years ago.  We had a crazy amount of weed seed in the soil but you can see the difference of spraying it weekly to not spraying it at all.  We are on top of the weed control but you will see some bleaching on the weeds due to the herbicide.  The bleaching is normal.  Also you will see some bleaching on the bermuda-grass we have in the fairways.  

It wouldn't be a normal week if we didn't have some issues to contend with.  Another round of irrigation repairs and our shop lift had a hydraulic cylinder blow up.  Always happens when it's hot out.  

On Thursday we were able to continue working on the new bermuda-grass area. We vertical sliced the area followed by a core aeration.  Once the cores and debris were dry we dragged the material into the holes and cleaned up the remaining debris.  This will most likely be the last time we beat this area up so it can recover and get ready for cooler months.  

Lastly I wanted to talk about the fans on holes 6 and 11.  These fans play a very important roll in helping us maintain these two pocketed greens.  The wind usually comes from the direction of the high school and because of the fence to the right of hole 11 the wind is blocked from cooling down these greens when the temperatures are high.  That is the reason for the fans.  PLEASE DO NOT TURN THE FANS OFF.  If you must turn the fans off for a shot or putt TURN THEM BACK ON.  I have seen a number of members cooling off in front of the fans on hot days. What you are feeling is exactly what the grass is feeling.  There were a number of times this past weekend when the fans were turned off and left off.  This is not ok.  

Thanks for reading.