Rain - Rain Come Back In August!!

The rains have been heavy in the last couple of weeks, and although it is seldom that a golf course superintendent would complain about rain, I could do with a week or so without it. But you take what mother nature gives you, and deal with it knowing that things always change. 

Water flowing in front of the 1st green December 23rd, 2012

Wash out of our new drain on #1

The storm washed out a 20 foot section of our new drainage installed in the first fairway. The trench will be cleaned out, the pipe re-installed, rock and sand put back in place and sod installed on top of this section.

A plug taken from the 18th green

The 18th green does not surface drain and standing water on it is suffocating the soil below. The water logged soil has no room for oxygen and the soil develops a black layer that eventually kills off the roots in that area. To combat this a drain has been installed in the green, and wetting agents applied to aid water penetration. An aerification in these areas would be the most beneficial thing for moving water out and getting oxygen in.

Diseased new grass plant

Prolonged wet conditions result in fungal growth, many of which attach grass plants. Most of the damage is superficial, and the plant can grow out of the disease when sunny dry weather resumes. However when conditions are continuously wet cool and cloudy, the diseases will continue, and can do a lot of damage.  The greens receive preventative treatments and they are showing no signs of disease, however fairways, approaches and rough do have disease and will be spraying fungicides to combat this as long as conditions warrant.

Standing water in the front of the #2 green in early December

New drainage at #2 worked December 23rd

The drainage here was not working a few weeks ago, so 50 feet of old drainage was removed and new installed this past week. There are a lot of areas on the course where the old drainage is in need of replacement. Mostly in the bunkers. Numerous bunkers have been worked on in the last year, with many more to go.

Down tree on the right of #2

Trees did pretty well during this storm, with the one pictured above being the biggest casualty.

Washed out bunker

Bunkers took a hard hit from the runoff. The result is silt at the bottom of the bunker that needs to be removed, and then sand moved back onto the face and compacted. There are at least 30 bunkers that are in need of repair.

Overall the course did well and with every storm there is work to be done. The successive storms we have had this month (and another forecast for Wednesday) have put us in a cycle of as soon as things get back into shape we get hit again and fix the same areas again. I believe that is what you call "maintenance".


Kevin