My how the weather has changed.  It is a welcome sight seeing the lake full again but don't we miss all that roll!  Now that we have some ground moisture we are tackling some work we held off on during the drought.  Fairway bayonet aeration and seeding bermudagrass areas in the fairways is foremost followed by fertilization of fairways and rough.  We are finally seeing germination is areas we seeded weeks ago!  It just goes to show how important rain and cooler temperatures are.

 

Bayonet tine aeration at sunrise on the first hole.

 

 

Slicing bent seed into bermudagrass. 

 

 

Seeding the driving range fairway with perennial rye on Monday.

 

 

Ryegrass seed in the groove.  This was seeded in two directions.

 

 

Our guys seeding ryegrass near the clubhouse.

 

 

Bentgrass germinating in fairways that was seeded weeks ago.  Under optimum conditions bent will germinate in three days!

 

 

The previous week the crew began raising part of the Audubon garden bed that had poor drainage.

 

 

This bed was not built up enough and held too much water.  Look at the water in the hole after several shrubs were removed.  Plants should thrive when this is completed.

 

 

Adding more plants to the entrance bed.

 

 

We continue to add new chips throughout the course.

 

 

Red Sprite deciduous holly (winterberry) near the sixth green.

 

 

A hickory shining on the tenth hole.

 

 

Once again the early bird catches the sunrise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Finally rain!  It has been 96 days since our last one inch rain event but it happened.  Our irrigation lake has a very large watershed as exhibited by the amount of recharge we experienced.  We received 1.2" Wednesday and that amount nearly filled the lake.  The drought is not over but this is a huge help.  We will resume seeding next week as well as some other work put off by the drought.

 

Four lake on Tuesday.  Is that corn growing?

 

 

Thursday morning and the lake is nearly full.  Generally 1.5" rain events will fill the lake.

 

 

Adding fresh chips to our chip beds.

 

 

Oscar and Jose B performing some temporary bridge repair.  This will be rebuilt this winter.

 

 

Nice contrast of mowing heights around 18 green.

 

 

Honeybees in the asters by 3 lake. The bees love this particular plant.

 

 

Female Ginkgo with stinky fruit.  These trees will be a brilliant yellow next week and then the leaves will suddenly drop.

 

 

What a sunrise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been 92 days since our last one inch rain event!  Yikes.  From the wettest 18 months to a drought.  We certainly can adapt.  The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has issued a statewide drought watch advisory because specific criteria have been met.  Precipitation amounts since July are 6-12 inches below normal, stream flows are 75 to 95 percent lower than recorded October flows, groundwater levels in some observation wells are 75 to 95 percent of previously recorded October levels, and minimal rainfall combined with record temperatures in September and October have resulted in very dry soil moisture conditions and subsequent agricultural impacts.  Lets hope this weather pattern changes! 

 

Not a pretty picture.

 

 

Our pump intake with the intake screen just beginning to break the surface.

 

 

We are pumping water from fifteen lake and it is showing.

 

 

We continue to water with reduced amounts.  Shorter days and cooler temperatures are helping.

 

 

Now is a good time to feed cool season turf.  However without adequate moisture we are careful where we apply fertilizer.  Here Rony applies a granular fertilizer to the 17th tee.

 

 

Pretty isn't it?

 

 

Mondays continue to be productive.  Here Francisco fills fairway divots with Gill's help. 

 

 

We also had a tree contractor remove multiple dead oaks on nine and near the driving range as well as chipping branches from the previous pruning.

 

 

Notice the difference?

 

 

Bermudagrass has really moved out this summer and fall.  That is a nasty plant and nearly indestructible..

 

 

The course is still looking good and playing fast!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A strange weather phenomenon occurred this week.  RAIN!  We only received three tenths of an inch but it was almost magical.  There was more recovery to the turf from this than all the irrigating we have been doing over the past month.  Cooler night time temperatures are helping as well.  Yesterday we set another record-98 degrees on October 2nd.  Cooler temperatures are finally in our future beginning Friday.

One amazing panoramic view of the course.

 

 

Cool nights are waking up the turf.  Here we see some lateral recovery in our bent fairways.

 

 

Annual bluegrass weevil damage on putting greens.  Originally this pest was thought not to damage greens.  I say Bull!

 

 

This is the larval stage responsible.  We put the hurt on them by spraying Ference insecticide on Wednesday.

 

 

On Monday the guys repaired part of our spillway that leaked. This is what it looked like prior to construction.

 

 

What a nice job they did.  The broken concrete was jacked up and then rip rap and concrete were added in the void.

 

 

Additional cracks were sealed throughout.

 

 

More concrete work.  Now we need some rain to see how we did.

 

 

Wildflower bed on the third hole with asters dominating in the fall.