The fun continues.  We are now in an extended drought coinciding with prolonged summer heat.  Managing anything green is trying.  Rain is in the forecast tonight so hopefully better days are ahead.

This heron finds the fishing better but who cares!  We need rain and yes we are buying water.

Right on the edge of Hermaine but not a drop of rain to be had.

Greens aerification-only the turf likes it.

We chose small holes based on the weather and feel good with our choice. 

A week later and the greens have fully recovered.  This looks like a young wooly bear caterpillar and an early sign of a tough winter?

Heat stress damage to the ninth fairway with bentgrass plants starting to recover.

One week later more improvement is seen but cooler temps and rain are the prescription we need.

Bent is finally beginning to grow as exhibited by the lateral recovery in this divot.  Temperatures have been too hot for this to occur for almost two months.

Some disappointing pics.  Fresh ballparks on aerified greens…

and not one but two divots on turf that can't heal itself.

Cart damage to drought stressed turf.

Second generation goosegrass germinating.  This weed has been a beast this summer and difficult to control with the weather extremes.

Proof that wetting agents are working!  Nice moisture throughout the root zone with roots starting to grow again.  Fall is coming.

Yours truly representing our club.  My team won the Virginia Turfgrass Research Tournament at Wintergreen shooting a fine 57 with a net 51.4!!!!  Thanks to my friends from Davisson Golf for the invite.

The driving range tee ready for action.  Days practicing on turf this season are numbered as the bermudagrass slows down.

Serenity even if the lake is out of water.

It's been a really difficult August but it is ending and course renovation has begun!  We either set or tied a record for the most ninety degree days for the month.  All things considered the course held up well and should recover rapidly with cooler temperatures and some beneficial rain.

All things considered the golf course held its own this summer.

We recently purchased this fairway slicer/spiker.  When better weather arrives we will incorporate it into our regular maintenance.

It is amazing how ugly one weed can be.  This is a goosegrass plant in a fairway.  This only plants that grow well this summer are weeds-particularly goosegrass, crabgrass, nutsedge and bermudagrass.

Crabgrass around the fifth tee.  We will document where extensive weed outbreaks were and treat accordingly next year.  Too much heat and rain have rendered preemergent herbicide applications ineffective this summer.  Treating later in the heat only hurts the turf.

Great practice technique on the practice fairway.  This will recover once it cools down by lateral  growth of the bent.

Poor practice technique and will not heal till next season.

Josh renovating the nurseries.

Solid tine aeration before and after rolling.

Lots of wildlife on the course.  Here four bucks graze near five tee.

Red tail hawk enjoying the sunrise.

The ladies had a fun "Karnival"event that Richard enjoyed preparing.

Mina's garden.

The lovely twelfth hole!

After a nice respite the grunge has returned and is expected to stay with us through the weekend.  Hazy, hot and humid conditions make this job extremely difficult so we will be really happy when cooler days return.  The nice change that occurred over the weekend improved the turf dramatically so we are hoping for a return to better growing conditions next week.

Cool season grass is difficult to grow when it gets above 90 degrees.  It naturally declines as temperatures rise in the upper 80's.  This plug is from the tree lined area of the ninth fairway and there  are very short roots. 

This plug is from the beginning of the fairway where there is more sun and better air movement.  Notice the roots following the aeration channel.  The roots are a good one inch longer than the previous frame.  Cool season grasses naturally shorten during the summer just when they need to be their longest which is crazy.  Aeration helps roots grow deeper and stronger before the grunge hits.

Rhizoctonia blight in the fairways last Tuesday.  The humidity was 90 percent with temperatures around 80 when this was taken-perfect conditions for this disease to occur.  This disease was not observed in my first trip around the course but was seen about two hours later.  Fortunately we were spraying fairways that day!

Lots of birds have been feeding on a number of surface insects so we applied an insecticide to alleviate their pecking.

Growth regulators are improving the bent populations throughout the course.  This is from the second green with bent overtaking the darker annual bluegrass.

This shows the importance of drainage.  The turf failed between the drain lines but where the soil has been amended the turf survived.  Seeding will start soon!

Many thanks to Groody's Groomers and their help repairing divots.

  

Julio has out done himself this summer with some of our plantings.

Another beauty.

A family of deer enjoying our lake while pruning the trees.

The fourth green better than ever.

There were no winners this time identifying the cause of the turf loss above.  Remember the small purple leaf plum at the beginning of the seventh fairway?  Anyway this turf had adapted to the shady environment underneath the tree.  After it died and was removed the shock of this summers heat spelled its decline.  

Whew! What a stretch of hot nasty weather we just endured.  The course is a little dinged up but all in all it performed well under conditions we haven't experienced since July 2013.  Temperatures reached 95 or above for seven straight days and didn't go below 80 for 134 consecutive hours which was only four hours short of a record.  There was remarkable recovery from the welcome rain Thursday followed by more moderate temperatures.

Right before the hot weather arrived we solid tined all the greens to get more oxygen to the roots.

We had a pretty good storm and lost this tree when the weather was still pristine.

Pylex herbicide was applied to all the fairways on July 19th and its performance is easily seen a week later.  The herbicide's rate of application is 1/8 ounce per acre and it only affects the bermuda.  Think about that!  Pylex temporarily suppresses the bermuda and will green back up about three weeks later. The whitening of the bermuda prevents photosynthesis from occurring thus keeping it from spreading when it is growing at its peak.  The negatives is that it is aesthetically unappealing.

Pylex herbicide selectively inhibiting bermudagrass with the bent performing well.

One week later the bentgrass in beginning to show quite a bit of heat stress.  Look closely and you will notice tire tracks from golf carts.  This is the reason we restrict carts when temperatures soar.

We had some great tree pruning done this week featuring James Earhart the 2015 world tree climbing champion.  He lost his title this year but will be competing at the National Arboretum in 2017 to try and reclaim his title.

Lots of cleanup for our crew.

The pollinating garden is moving along.  Here Julio and Cayatano plant inkberries completing the shrub phase.

Turf twister.  Be the first to explain why this turf failed and win a dozen golf balls.  This area is located just to the left of the 7th fairway near the beginning.  The answer (and winner if there is one) will be mentioned in my next blog.

Another amazing day begins!