Catching up

We are behind on the rough mowing and a few other maintenance issues due to the rain, the Club Championship then the aerification all in a row. Not to mention all of the debris we have to clean before mowing. With my entire crew having to work the weekend for the tournament then a couple of long days for aerification I simply do not have the man hours to get it all done quickly.
I hope everyone understands. We should be all caught up by the time the greens are completely healed, if not sooner.

Greens aerification

We are completing our second and final greens aerification of the year. Everything went as planned and we finished on schedule. The entire course will be open in the morning. Please revisit my  post from June to see exactly what we do during aerification.
Thanks !

90 degrees!

With the recent rains and the new long term forecast having much less extreme temperatures I feel that it is safe to return to the 90 degree rule!
We will remain Cart Path Only on holes 11 and 16 in order to help protect these two weaker fairways from excessive ware in hopes of having a better winter surface.
As I write this note we have a rather large storm approaching so we may have to remain cart path only  due to wetness. Hows that for for a change?
Thank you!

Rain Sweet Rain!!!!!!!!

We got 2.25 inches of rain last night!!!!!! This will really help the course and our irrigation pond! This does not mean the severe conditions are over, but it is a start. !

Extreme Conditions= Extreme measures

8.4.11

Due to the extreme weather conditions the Greens Committee and I, with the support of the BOD, have decided to go Cart Path Only until conditions improve
.
When the turf becomes this hot and dry it attempts protect itself by "shutting down" or going dormant. When this occurs the plant stores very little water in the leaf blade leaving the plant unable to tolerate the stress of heavy traffic. The leaf blades are simply crushed by cart tires, and in some cases the weight of a person walking.

 This decision was not taken lightly and hopefully is a very temporary one.

Here are some pictures illustrating the conditions.

Until we have cooler temperatures with more moisture growing conditions will not improve. So, we have to remove the dangerous variable that we can control, cart traffic.

The damage caused by cart traffic can be long term. Although we still have plenty of time to recover, if conditions change soon, we are looking at the long term quality of the Course.

As you can see even areas of healthy turf can be affected in extreme conditions like Wednesday.