Strong Storm this morning

Although there was much lightning and some heavy rain the golf course did not experience any damage. I will bet that later today or tomorrow I discover a tree or two that got struck by lightning, but none are down. This was a typical thunder/rain storm, since many members do not get out on the course directly after such an event, here are a couple of pictures of what we have to deal with after a heavy rain. All of these pictures were taken within 20 minutes of the rain stopping.

Typically bunkers are our major concern. We have to clean any dirt or silt out of the greenside bunkers as quickly as we can so the silt does not contaminate the white sand. If silt gets mixed in with the bunker sand water will not be able to flow though to the drainage.

This is the fairway bunker on #1. Our fairway bunkers have not been renovated so they fill with water and do not drain. We have to pump these out. If you remember this is exactly how each and every greenside bunker was before we renovated a few years ago.

This is the front left greenside bunker on 4. As you can see there is no water, the sand is still draining quickly. This is very good considering how hard it rained. But some silt was left behind, so my crew will be skimming this out ASAP so the smaller particles of the silt do not get mixed into the sand.

This is the front right greenside bunker on 16. As you can see it is not washed and there is not any silt. This is how most of the bunkers perform after a rain. It is important for us to rake the bunkers after we clean them so that if it rains again the sand is not so compact and water will flow though the sand rather than run across it causing washouts.