Living On The Edge

        The cooler nighttime temps could not have come at a better time.  Saturday afternoon the poa annua on green number 5 really was struggling.  When soil temperatures reach 80 degrees, the plant begins to shut down.  When you see us hand watering greens, we are typically giving a quick "mist" over the plant to cool it down and get it through the remainder of the day.  We have actually been fortunate that there has not been excessive moisture, because these soil temps with excessive moisture basically creates a crock pot effect on the turf.  Our daytime high soil temps have been between 80-90 degrees since may, and we are literally forcing the turf to just barely hang on (hand watering, fungicide applications, cultural practices, and praying).  I think it's safe to say that most of us on the grounds staff are just barely hanging on as well.  Below are graphs showing soil temperatures for #3 green and the greens as a whole.  The other picture is a poa annua plant (most of the greens are 50-60% poa) with less than a .5" root system, and a pure bentgrass plant from the short game green with nearly 4" roots.  Obviously the soil at .5" is much warmer than the soil at 4-5".

Irrigation Upgrade



We have taken the first steps of bringing our irrigation system into the 21st century.  I'm not sure when the irrigation satellites were originally installed, but the satellites that have been running this irrigation system came out on the market over 40 yrs ago.  The old satellites only had capacity to control 12 stations, while the new ones are set up for 48.  One of the many new features these satellites allow us to do is, turn on multiple stations on the same hole.  Before we could operate one fwy station at a time while syringing, and now we can operate as many as the water flow can handle. Many features in these satellites are going to allow us to function more efficiently.  We have also installed a new weather station that gives us an ET (evapotranspiration) reading at our site.  Though Jim knows what every inch of this property needs when it comes to watering, watering off of ET will allow us to put back just enough water to ensure the plants are getting whats necessary.  Feel free to ask Jim, Dan, or Mike how our irrigation upgrades will help improve your golf course.  



Out with the old






In with the new



Update: White Tee #9

Construction of the new white tee on #9 has been completed.  We have begun rolling the teeing surface to work all the bumps from sod out.  We will begin mowing and applying sand topdressing next week to help in the smoothing process.  Once the turf begins rooting and we see growth, we should be able to get golfers on it.