Sunday, August 9, 2015

Course Update and a Great Article

 
Golf Course Update
 
     It is hard to believe that August is here and that's when we start to think about recovery from a stressful summer.  We will be aerifying greens August 11th and 12th if the weather holds up.  As I am writing this the forecast does not look good for Tuesday the 11th.  If we need to push back aerification we will until Wednesday and Thursday but lets cross our fingers and hope that we can stay on schedule.  We need to be a little careful with this aerification due to the weather patterns that we have had over the past several months.  Even though things may look good on top down below is what I concern myself with during an aerification in August.  What I mean is that we have had several different swings in weather patterns during May, June and July.  May was dry and that is good for growing the roots down below.  June we received over 3 times the amount of rain we typically get and combined with high humidity it can do a number on the root system and the grass plant.  When we have conditions like this in June the grass becomes lazy, excess nitrogen is released from the soil causing puffy turf conditions, the grass is extremely hydrated, and oxygen in the root zone is minimal because of the saturated soils.  When conditions like this persist there is always things that we will battle for the rest of the summer.  Even though we can aerate with small solid tines to help with oxygen exchange in the soil, trying to dry something out is tough when we cannot manage the rainfall.  This is why we have sand greens.  As long as we can manage the top couple of inches and keep the organic matter and thatch under control we can continue to have greens that will have good infiltration rates during these times.  I have attached a very good article that everyone should read from the USGA about our area this year. 
 
 
 
    Also this week the new driving range netting will be installed starting Wednesday the 12th.  Why are we doing this you ask?  There are several reasons -  first is safety.  We continually have nets that rip and fall down during high winds because of the netting was never installed correctly to begin with over 11 years ago.  Second the life of the netting has failed because it was never installed correctly. Each pole should have wire at the top and bottom and then going down each pole to attach each section of netting keeping it tight.  That is where they failed.  Instead of running a wire down each pole whoever installed the netting actually just used rope down the poles in several areas.  There are also sections of netting that are one net but actually cover two sections and the rope was just over top the net going down the pole.  The installers will work continuously once they start to finish the job.  I appreciate your patience during this improvement. 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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