Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Aerification

We are right in the middle of the two busiest weeks of the year. The Nolan Tournament was a success despite the rain that hung around throughout the tournament. The drainage that was installed last Fall in the Greens performed beautifully. We received an inch of rain on Sunday and we were playing golf within an hour of the rain subsiding. The hard work has begun this week. The July aerification is the most physically demanding week of the year for the Green Staff. We have finished aerifying and topdressing the greens, fairways, and are currently working on the approaches. This is a time consuming process that requires some disruption of play to the membership. We may have to close a hole periodically to complete this process. The sooner we are completed, the sooner we can return your golf course to you. The recovery time on the greens should be approximately 10-14 days. The greens will remain soft during the recovery period so please remember to repair your ball marks. We thank you for your understanding during this process and appreciate your cooperation.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Water Water and More Water

Anyone who has played this week may have noticed the amount of water being applied to the golf course. I have been asked many times this week. Why don't you just water at night? With the temperatures and humidity as high as they are applying a large amount of water to the golf course at night would cause a tremendous amount of disease throughout the golf course. Disease will kill a lot more grass that what a lack of water will. Our goal on days like this is to keep the turf cool. We are just trying to lower the temperature of the surface of the turf. The Poa Annua that is on our greens, tees, and fairways does not tolerate the heat. High temperatures over a long period of time would cause a significant decline in the quality of our turf. This is why when temperatures approach 90 degrees will are constantly trying to cool the grass blades down. There may be some disruption in play from time to time to allow us time to syringe but it is essential to the health of the golf course.