September is winding down and we are in real need of significant rainfall.  We have not had a one inch rain event since late July.  For the month of September we have received just under one inch.  Of course it is raining as this is being typed.  Too little, too late for much of our seed work.

Not a pretty sight.

Our pump intake is easy to see.

Yoshino cherry trees defoliated due to the drought.

Pin oak under stress.

Josh seeding some stressed areas in the rough as we wait for rain.

The bermuda driving range tee has been overseeded with perennial ryegrass.  Here Josh is dragging the seed into the turf canopy.

One week later we are seeing germination throughout.

Here is the super's best friend Jim Groody repairing divots in the 7th fairway.

A sure sign of fall- collecting chestnuts near the 17th green.

The sod has rooted in well on the 4th hole and is ready for play.  Please keep pull carts off this sod for 

now.

 There have been plenty of earthworms in our fine turf areas this year.

Our greens have recovered beautifully from aeration.  Fairways are being mowed in the push-pull method to protect our rough seeding. 

Greens aeration went about as well as could be expected without the help of rain.  Our greens should be back to our standard next week.  We could use a nice soaking rain to get the rough back in shape.  Much of the weak areas around the fairways have been seeded and need some help from Mother Nature to fill in.  We took advantage of the nice weather to sod some weak areas with northern exposures on Wednesday.  Kudos to our staff!

A view of our irrigation lake.

We are transferring water from the lake on fifteen.

 Replacing weak turf on the fourth hole.

Nine thousand square feet of sod installed on Wednesday.  Beautiful!

 Vandalism on the fifth green.  We will repair this area this week.

We have gone back to conventional mowing of our fairways to protect the rough.  We need rain!

Ryegrass failure around the chipping green.  The entire rough surrounds of the chipping green will be sodded this fall and make for a much improved practice area.

 Shade problems on the twelfth fairway.  I believe its time to say goodbye to this tree.

Our winterberry hollies have had a major growth spurt by the fifteenth tee and are loaded with berries.

 Fog rolling in this morning.  Its not rain but its close!

When golf and maintenance collide!  Aeration and seeding time is here and unfortunately it makes playing golf very frustrating.  Why are we always working on the course?!  And on a holiday too!?  The fact is now is the best time to seed cool season turf.  In order to have success with our seeding we must water the seed-a lot.  The only way to have success is by applying adequate moisture and then maintaining that level until the plants are established.  Golf carts are particularly harmful to the new seedlings so we ask that you keep your cart on the path where applicable. Carts should be able to begin driving on the fairways soon.  

All of the approaches as well as the entire fairways on holes 5, 7, and 8 were solid tined aerated and then topdressed.  Keeping on this program will firm these areas up and allow the course more roll.

Seeding the intermediate rough with a tall fescue-bluegrass blend.  We have seen germination in six days!

Bent seedlings emerging after only four days,

Adequate moisture is a must to ensure seeding success.  We are very dry so rain would be a huge benefit right now.  No irrigation system can be as uniform in precipitation distribution as Mother Nature.

Annual bluegrass weevils are here.  Here is a plug from the first fairway showing the larvae in the thatch layer.  These insects are very difficult to control due to their multiple generations.

Annual bluegrass weevil damage in a fairway.  It prefers annual bluegrass but unfortunately will attack bentgrass also.

Topdressing applied in tandem.  Aerification went well despite the hot weather.

New assistant Josh dispersing sand with our turbine blower.

A good soaking in immediately following.  Rain is forecast which would be perfect!

Toughest summer weather of the year.  Heat index in excess of 100 makes it difficult.

August is winding down and seeding time is here.  We begin working on some of the fairways and rough this week and go full bore the following two weeks.  Please pay attention to cart rules as we will really be throwing the water to areas that have been seeded.

 

Pylex continues to do a nice job suppressing the bermudagrass in the fairways.  We realize it is not very attractive but hopefully the bermudagrass population will eventually be reduced to not stand out so much.

 

This area of the 18th fairway had much more bermudagrass last year.

 

 

Pylex is particularly effective on goosegrass.  The cart path edges were recently treated at 1/2 ounce  to the acre!

 

 

Hopefully a lesson will be learned from this.  The sprayer was not cleaned properly before a fungicide was applied.  This is Pylex residue left in the tank from a previous spray.  The bermudagrass should grow out of this in about three weeks.

 

 

The driving range tee continues to receive plenty of use.  We will begin reducing play on the turf soon.  We are already preparing the bermudagrass for winter by raising the height of cut.

 

 

Foxes are really in their element this time of year.  Now that is a foxhole!

 

 

There are lots of wildflowers courtesy of Mother Nature in our creeks.  We have cut back some of the overgrowth in play areas but are promoting this where possible.

 

 

Another type of flower that we haven't seen before.

 

 

Our annual maintenance picnic featured mallet busting crabs!!

 

We are enjoying August!  Adequate rainfall with moderate temperatures has allowed much of the course to perk up a bit.  If this weather pattern continues we plan on seeding weak areas in fairways and rough earlier than usual.  Once seeding begins we ask that you pay particular attention to cart rules so not to damage any new seedlings until they are established.

 

As expected we have had quite an invasion of weeds in the rough.  The sedges have been particularly abundant this summer.  This is yellow nutsedge and it easy to recognize by its fast growth rate.  Over seven acres were treated on August 1st.

 

 

This is soft crabgrass which has been prevalent as well.  Preemergent herbicides were applied but too much rain reduces their effectiveness.  The nice break in the weather should allow us to apply herbicides that will remove this weed without hurting the turf. 

 

 

Annual bluegrass weevils are going to be a major pest on our course in the future.  Here a soap flush is being performed in a fairway to bring adults to the surface.

 

 

These are the adults collected from that area.  Three additional soap flushes in adjacent areas produced hardly any adults. 

 

 

This is a sample from a fairway showing one annual bluegrass larvae near the center of the plug.  We are starting to see better rooting as illustrated by the nice whites roots.

 

 

The signs near the green refer to pull carts!  I sure hope riding carts aren't getting that close to our greens.

 

 

Ropes are put up to control foot traffic.  Do you mean I've got to walk all the way around?  Yep.

 

 

Damage to the third fairway with carts restricted to the path. 

 

 

How I keep my sanity.