Liquid gold

 

Almost 2 inches of rain, or liquid gold as we value it currently, fell from the sky over the past few days. Carmel lake has just barely started to overflow after being about 3 feet down. That means we have just captured almost 10 million gallons of fresh water and the wells are finished pumping for the season. The pH of rain is usually below 6 which means it is acidic. After a long dry stretch our turf was ready for a cleansing and the rain did just that. The rain helps wash down built up bicarbonates and salt, allowing for better water infiltration and release of nutrients for the turf, a great thing.

Along with 10 million gallons of water came 100 million leaves this week. The frosts last week certainly changed some leaf color out there and the winds from the storm knocked plenty loose.

We are just starting to get the tractor blowers back out on the turf but the team has been fighting the leaves on foot this week as much as possible.

We had about 3 hours on Monday before the rain started so we ran out and got another verticutting and sand topdressing event down on the bentgrass. The sand washed in perfectly so you should have some solid putting surfaces again for the weekend.

There are a handful of greens on the North where you can see some patches where a disease called take all root rot likes to form. Take all becomes more noticeable in the off season on older Champion bermuda greens as turf growth slows. These few greens have a higher pH in the soil which promotes the disease more than a lower pH. Fungicides keep the disease at bay and the hope is as we start to treat our irrigation water and continue to incorporate pH lowering practices that disease stays superficial at worst.

The North guys cooked up a small drainage project while it was raining for next to the path on 11. They quickly cut a trench on Wednesday and buttoned it up today. Now that the rain has returned the list of drainage projects for the winter is growing.

                  

This week the Greens and Grounds committee met and among many things discussed were the par 3 divot boxes and broken tee bins. The Agronomy staff expressed our concerns about lack of use of the bins, the need to move them around, stress on the turf and the general eye sore they create. The broken tee bins in the same light do not condense any sort of mess, especially as the tee bounces out of the bin. Each morning our staff moves the tee markers, fills the divots and picks up broken tees. 

The committee agreed to free our tee boxes of the sand bins and broken tee boxes. We will continue filling divots and picking up broken tees each morning. We will however like to make it known that broken tees should be viewed as trash, just like cups, straw wrappers, cigarette butts, lemons, limes, napkins and the like are. Broken tees ultimately should can be thrown in the trash, in your cart or even in the rough is much better than leaving it on the tee box. Over time I think we will have a much cleaner look out on the course with this change!

Enjoy the sunny weekend!