Sodding Continues Today

We prepped yesterday a couple of areas on 12's green for sod repair, and this morning we will sod those areas plus work on 13's green. With the holiday week leading to reduced man-hours I decided to get too much additional sod today so we could ensure the sod we have was in the ground instead of drying out sitting on the roll.

Work Has Finally Started on 12's Green

Since tomorrow is the Fourth of July no additional work on the greens will be done until Thursday. Hopefully, on Thursday we can finish the green's repair project or at the very least by Friday morning. Speaking of greens, we tried to verticut them today to promote lateral bermudagrass growth when our steering column broke on the verticutter putting a halt to the maintenance after just one green. Aging equipment without any capital inputs lately has led to many of the changes in our decisions (i.e. having both buffalo blowers break led to us not blowing the fairways until today).

18's Rough Near the Approach -- Ryegrass Dying, Bermudagrass Healthy

We will continue to overcome our equipment issues and continue to prep the golf course in the best conditions possible. I should note, however, that lately thanks to extreme temperatures the golf course is experiencing transition since this year we are allowing the course to "naturally" transition compared to past year's chemical transition. Chemical transition is uglier at first but heals quicker ... while natural last longer and at times doesn't allow for complete healing. We are photo’ing this process and this may change next year.

14's Fairway- Hot Spots Due to Ryegrass Dying -- But the Bermudagrass is fine

I have been also hearing that we are not putting enough water out at night. Part of this might stem from the fact that one of our pump station's pumps went out, but let me assure you we are still irrigating at the same rate as before ... just using a longer irrigation window (ex. 1.2 million before in 10 hours vs. 1.2 million in 12.5 hours). This is why you see the irrigation still running at 8:00 am on the back nine.