Enough rain already!  Excessive rainfall coinciding with high heat and humidity make this job especially challenging.  Hopefully the remnants of Bill will not hurt us too much as we get ready for  Member Guest.  Our greens perform at their best when rainfall amounts are minimal.  If conditions remain as they are it will be difficult to achieve desired green speeds for our tournaments.  Come on nice weather!

 

We have begun regular solid tine aeration of greens.  We try and do this every two weeks throughout the summer.

 

 

It is amazing how little this practice affects the putting surface.  This is before rolling.

 

 

Once we have rolled there is hardly a blemish.

 

 

Here are some observations of the course.  This is "soft" spike damage on the practice green.  I believe some of these spikes are no better than their metal ancestors.  Please try and walk carefully on the greens and tamp down any damage.

 

 

Poor practice on the left and correct on the right at the short game area.  The left side will take most of the season to recover.  Since the driving range tee is bermudagrass you may practice taking divots in mass!  Bermuda has below ground stems called rhizomes that will grow back in the damaged area.  Bent can not recover in this manner.

 

 

Correct practice.  Bent will recover with lateral growth in narrow divot channels.

 

 

Carts are restricted on holes 7 and 8 not because of poor drainage but concentrated cart wear.  The drainage works great!

 

We are applying wetting agents to our fairways and rough through our irrigation system.  This is a cost effective method to make water more available to the turf. 

 

 

This hot humid weather has our fans in use earlier than normal.  Fans are the best fungicide available!

 

 

We had some needed pruning and removals done this week.  Anyone miss this tree?

 

 

The bee population is growing.  This is called bearding and they are ready for more space before they swarm.

 

 

New space called supers and the bees have moved in.

 

 

A nice rainbow this morning.