Halfway through September

 

There is no arguing that we are losing daylight but our summer theme of above average temps and below average rain is still here. It looks like we have another 5 days of this pattern before things change for the better next week.

Despite the summer temps we still have fall preparations to make as in a few weeks warm season growth will shut down quickly. We continue to apply nutrients to the zoysia collars so that they are ready for the off season which involves plenty of traffic from greens mowers and golfers alike.

Along with the short grass, bunker banks as well as the north facing slopes on the driving range are being treated with fungicide for spring dead spot. SDS develops now in September and October but does not reveal the turf it has infected until the spring. Applying fungicides twice in the fall helps prevent any damage.

We have made our second pre-emerge application around the greens on both courses this week. On the zoysia we used a granular product that won't spread to the bent and should do a nice job preventing Poa annua germination. 

Micah has made a quick last ditch effort to try and square some tees up on the South. This will be a solid focus for next growing season as well. Over on the driving range we will go ahead and start the overseed process on the north tee next week. The remaining tees and short game area will be overseeded the week of October 4th.

The North team got one more topdressing completed on their par 3 tees this week as well as the top two range tees. We thought about overseeding a few par 3 tees this fall but it was a little too late since we already put one application of pre-emergent down earlier in August.

The bent nursery on the South is again ready for seed next week. We have a few newer bentgrasses to try out that we will seed in different blocks here and also on the north nursery.

The last of the dead fall tree work has been completed this week from the Labor Day weekend storm. We have plenty on the list that still needs to come down but we will ease into that work slowly through the fall and winter.

We started to incorporate a new tool in to cutting cups this week. The Geoez is a gps radio that hooks into the app we use for choosing hole locations already. This allows our cup cutter to walk straight to the proper hole location instead of having to figure out the correct paces and distances from the various edges. This tool should save us some time while also improving accuracy of pin placements.

Good luck to the Interclub team this weekend as they tackle the North course. Fall is in our sights!

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