Hot and humid has been the theme this week but fortunately that ends later today with a boom (We hope).  It was 78 degrees at 4:30 this morning.  Extended periods of high temperatures during the day followed by high night time temperatures spells trouble for cool season turf.  Cool season turf recovers at night during the summer when hopefully the temperature cools below 70 degrees.  Please be mindful of this as you drive your cart on the course.  Golf carts are tough on the grass during these heat waves. 

Bad news waking up to this.  

Working on the course in a gap during the Bowers.  Edging bunkers and hand watering.

The course is holding up well under this heat wave for the most part.

Mowing greens on the last day of the Bowers.  The lattice pieces are used as turning boards for the mowers to protect the tender grass.

I repeat no carts on the green collars!!!!!!

There it is brought back to life and adding more enjoyment to your game.  Our recently renovated intermediate mower in motion.

Bermudagrass is beginning to get aggressive in the rough.  The silvery grass is the bermuda encroaching in our fescue-bluegrass blend.  Herbicides will soon be applied to help reduce this invasive weed.  The bermuda in our fairways is suppressed using much lighter rates of Pylex.  Rates as low as 5/100ths of an ounce per acre are reducing its aggressive behavior!

Our new wildflower beds are already shining.  This was seeded on May 29th!

A closer look.  

Bee balm covered with bees behind the 6th tee.

Gill has found a way to cool off in the heat.

Doesn't this tree look familiar?

 

 Summer heat has arrived.  This first hot spell looks to be short.  Cooler temperatures arrive tomorrow with hopefully some beneficial rain.  We have reduced inputs just a bit to weather the storm so to speak.  Mowing, rolling, cart traffic are all forms of stress on turf during very warm periods.  Adding to that is the turf's naturally shrinking root mass during summer and it is easy to see why cool season turf struggles in this heat.

We were able to squeeze in a solid tine aeration prior to the start of July.  This is very beneficial to our greens.  We try to perform this every other Monday during the summer when feasible.

We've experienced some pretty good storms that really bring the cicada flagging down.  This was last Saturday.

Shawn hand watering greens this morning.  There is plenty of this occurring during this heat wave. This is the most precise method of watering and we know what too much water can do.

Our young crewmen performing divot repair before the ladies tournament this morning.

Repairing an area that continually gets destroyed by delivery trucks.

It has been difficult getting our beds cleaned up and mulched but we are finally about there.

Wildflower beds continue to impress.  Here is Monardo or Bee Balm.

The purple flower is new to me.  Anyone know its name?

Liatris or Blazing Star.

Morning Glory (I think)

Asclepias or Butterfly Weed.  These are all flowers we are seeing in year two by 7 tee.

Look closely and you will see a hitch hiker on Luis' dashboard.  We saved the mouse but they are real pests during the winter nesting in many of our machines.