July Entry

A hot summer with little rain is something we are used to, with last summer’s drought still fresh in our minds. With 3.9mm of rain in the last 21 days we are back to applying lots of water to the golf course often. We are supplementing our overnight irrigation programs with additional cycles ahead of play in the morning and doing a fair amount of hand watering to deliver water into specific areas of need. We appreciate the patience of our morning golfers as the crew has been working very hard to provide the playing conditions we expect. With 5mm falling yesterday we were able to leave the pumps off for a night for the first time in a couple of weeks. The long range forecast is looking more promising for precipitation events. This will allow us to put more time into making repairs and adjustments to the system where we are seeing small leaks or areas that are not getting the amount of water that they need.

An aeration of the greens was performed this week. Needle tining is a process where very small tines poke very small holes in the greens. This process helps with air and water infiltration. Something that is impacted as summer goes on. The firm surface repels water and seals the roots off from air exchange. We applied a light layer of topdressing sand and rolled the greens smooth and rain a soaking irrigation cycle on them. A minimally invasive process that makes a big difference. We will perform the process once more in a month’s time.

We had to remove a couple of trees on 14 this spring that were dead. Contrary to popular belief, we do like trees here on the turf team! We felt the location the two softwoods were in was a good spot to have trees as their location has no impact on the turf. In its place, we have planted oak trees. Looking forward to watching them root and mature and fill in the gap that was left here. Great job by Amber sourcing the trees from a local nursery and planting them promptly.