Course Update

 

 

 

 

OK enough is enough.  We received another 3.25 inches of rain Thursday night into Friday morning last week.  Even though we were able to get the course mowed out before the rain it always puts us behind getting that much rain before the weekend.  Typically we like to get another mowing on the rough during this period since it is growing so fast and with all the rain that did not happen.  We took advantage of the circumstances and started to plant our summer annuals around the clubhouse and string trimmed .

 

Here is a picture from 2 tee looking back on 1 fairway.  You can see the pond overflowing the banks and water flooding the first fairway and the small pond on 9.

 

 

All I have to say is that I am glad that this is not our current bunker situation.  After visiting a few other courses last Friday evening and looking at some flooding damage and bunker washouts I had to take picture of this bunker of a course is Virginia to remind me of how lucky we are not to have to deal with this anymore.  This was just one bunker out of 4 around a green.  You can imagine having to fix 60 plus bunkers would be like.  Let me explain the process a little bit better for you.  First - make sure you crew is in a good mood, second - you have to remove the silty sand in the lower most point of the bunker because it is contaminated with silt and the sand will start draining poorly going forward, third - get the shovels out and throw the sand back up where the washouts occurred, fourth -  check your sand depth and make sure you have 4 to 6" of sand throughout the bunker, fifth - if you do not have enough sand add more, and sixth - ask for a bunker renovation because having to go through this a few times a year for a hazard is ridiculous.

 

 

On Monday May 19th we finally had the time to do some TLC to the greens.  With an afternoon outing scheduled at 1:00 and no other golfers on the course until 9:00 am we double groomed the greens at a 1/16th of an inch, double cut after that, lightly topdressed, dragged and then went back and mowed the greens again.  This will really help get the "leggies" out of the bentgrass and start promoting some new shoots.