The golf course is extremely wet. We have received over 1.5 inches of rain since this weekend

and more is on the way. Today we are venting the greens with a solid tine aeration. This process

will bring air to our roots and increase the effective surface area of the green, drying them out

sooner. Our plan is to roll and topdress tomorrow morning before the next outing. These small

hole will be almost undetectable by the weekend, and should help in firming up our greens after

all this wet weather.

Our bunker bank sod project is complete! Thanks to the hard work of the staff we were able to

freshen up the bunkers on 5, 8, 11, 13 and 18 ahead of schedule. Please give yourself relief if your ball winds up in a sod crack over the next few weeks.

Here are a few after shots of the bunkers.

This is a busy time of year on the golf course. Fall and winter projects are wrapping up,
while spring agronomy, and spring course preparations are underway. This week we are going to
improve the bunker banks on several holes. Bunker edges on 5, 8, 11 and 13 will all be improved this
week with fresh tall fescue sod. Many of these areas were originally seeded to be wispy fine fescue
and have not held up to the wear and tear of weekly mowing.

We have begun, in earnest, to improve these areas and we hope to have this project wrapped up by the
weekend. All bunkers will be marked as ground under repair until the new sod is laid. Thank you in
advance for your patience.

Tim Edwards

As I posted earlier, the excessive rainfall coupled with stretches of heat and humidity have made maintaining our typical mowing, spraying schedules extremely difficult. We've fared well on sand based areas, as better drainage allows more pore space providing oxygen and gas exchange to the roots. This helps lower the typical late summer stress to the plants. The few areas in the fairways around or leading to drain basins have been hit the hardest. The constant flow of water and clay soil saturation reduced or eliminated the pore space providing oxygen to the plant. This strike coupled with high heat was more than the plants could handle.
Even with a well draining course the amount of rainfall in the past month has been unbelievable. In a 3 1/2 week span we collected nearly 17" of water in our gauge. The breaks in between storms were accompanied with warm and humid weather offering little chance to dry out.
The weather looks to be favorable in the coming weeks especially with cooler night temps. We will begin stripping the damaged turf and replacing with new bent next week. Through the next couple months we will focus on these areas by opening holes and adding topdressing. Over time the sand blend will increase water flow and provide greater pore space, just in case mother nature decides to throw another curve ball our way in the future.


I recently received a letter from the GCSAA. Our national group of superintendents rarely sends a public service announcement unless a large area of golf courses have been effected. Please take a look at the link provided below

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/8910233497473a5fbabd4be19/files/a71c795e-d697-4fb8-a31f-f72ce05d791e/GC_Notification_July2018.pdf

You can always have too much of a good thing

You'll probably never hear me say "the rain can stop now". Usually we are begging for it to help replenish the ponds, take a break from dragging hoses, and turning off the city water bill. This year has been a year of excesses. We've received 13+" of rain in the last 2 1/2 weeks and coupled with high humidity has caused saturated soil conditions with little dry down.

After patiently(haha) waiting and getting a slight break in the rain action we were finally, safely able to catch up with fairway mowing. Mike our mechanic had to raise all the mower heights so we wouldn't take off too much at one shot. This would put undue stress on the plants in normal conditions let alone dead of summer. We had to readjust the mowers three times and are back to regular height. Wheww!

With typical seasons of weather, the golf course drains extremely well. There's been many times were 2+" of rain has fallen overnight and by 1-2:00 I have put carts back on fairways with no damage. This year has been the exception. The clay soils on the property do not allow excess water to penetrate very well so miles of drain pipes and drain basins were added throughout the course. This has been a blessing for turf care and towards a play-ability standpoint. Many courses have had to close during this season due to swamp like conditions.

Even with this great design feature some damage has occurred. Last Friday we received almost 2" of rain in a short period. This, coupled with already saturated soils caused the drains to be overwhelmed creating streams and ponds to rapidly form on the fairways. This problem was compounded by the fact that immediately following the storm 90 degree blazing sun appeared. The standing water then acted like a magnifying glass rapidly increasing the temps around the plants. The second problem created is the stomates (pores) on the underside of the leaves couldn't open allowing a water vapor release which cools the plant. An analogy would be soaking in a 110 degree hot tub for the next 4 hours without coming out. Your sweat pores wouldn't open allowing you to cool down until internal temps went too far.

This past Monday and Tuesday we punched holes along these channels to help dry them out and get oxygen down to the roots. Throughout the day we will be spinning the heads 1 turn in these areas to help cool the plants without adding any significant amount of water. Once temps and humidity ratchet down a bit the plants should rebound quickly.

A very slight swale, which held water and snaked down to the basin

The contouring doing exactly what its supposed to; moving water towards a basin. Just not over and over...

Buckets and Buckets

In the last week the course has received over 8” of rainfall. At first, this was definitely a blessing with pond levels at an all time low and the city water pumping continuously. I had to drain the middle pond (by 4 tee) into the lower irrigation pond in order to have enough to water at night. The daily rains have helped to reset our pond levels and thoroughly hydrate the soil.

The issue now is that while we needed these rains to reset, they are now becoming a burden. When the turf and the soil below are completely saturated, trying to mow becomes an impossibility. Mechanical damage from mowers increases dramatically. The soft turf can easily be scalped, torn, and ripped from the roots leaving lasting damage for weeks. 

We will try our best keep good green speeds but the health of the turf always comes first.

The punching we just finished will help tremendously to quickly move water away from the surface but we still need to assess each morning whether its safe to mow.

As for the rest of the course, we are behind in our typical mowing schedule. Grasses in the rough and fairways have been unmowable this week with almost 4.5” of rain in the last 4 days. Hopefully we can catch a break, get some sun and wind to help dry things up and get back to our normal schedule.

This pic was taken a few days before venting the greens.

Almost identical downpours after slits.

The aerification with bayonet tines relieves compaction, allows gas exchange, and creates channels for new roots and water to flow.

All in a day

The weather finally warmed up about 2-3 weeks ago. The grass is now responding, oh boy is it responding! About .5" of growth per hour!! The close to 10" of rain in the last 2 weeks probably had a little bit of say in that and now we need to mow. I mean mow. "And when you guys finish hole 18, don't even think of washing the unit off, start again".
The warmth and plentiful moisture finally woke the turf up and it was all we could do to stay on top of it. This past week the rough machines logged as many hours as I've ever seen. The primary rough was cut 4 times in 5 days to stay fair for golf. The fescue areas were chopped down 3 times and raked up. Due to the slow start this spring, I've learned my lesson on using fertilizer to wake things up. I decided to hold off and let nature take it's course. I can't begin to imagine with a lb. of N on this rough what we'd been up against. Once we get some dryer, warmer weather heading towards mid summer we will apply a slow release product to keep the turf green and healthy through the season.

Prepping for the busy next three weeks of tourneys. Member/Member - Ladies Member/Member- Rivercrest Day Member Guest.

Just completed rough and fairway mows. See ya here again tomorrow!

Divot crew

Thank goodness for morning dew. Although the walk mowers hate when the triplex shows up ahead and steals it!

Final Day! We might just get lucky and get this in. Forecast looks rough

The dome was up! The tourney was a success and dry! INCOMING!! as the awards ceremony wrapped up

Unleashing!! 5 minutes after the picture above