Greens Repair

As many of you already know we had issues on the back nine greens in October thanks to the heat, lack of wind and disease that came with those conditions.  We have repaired them quite a bit but not enough for me to be satisfied so starting today we will be starting the select sodding repairs.  On holes such as 10, 13 & 16 there will be edge repairs performed, and holes such as 11, 12 & 15 there will be plug repairs.

These repairs will start today and hopefully will be almost completed by tomorrow.  But these sodding repairs will not alone fix our issues thus on Friday we will be topdressing the back nine greens (depending on weather).  We went from 10 degrees above normal to now 10 + degrees below normal which will slow the recovery process.  But rest assure it is the most important thing on our list to get done.

Opening Day

It is opening day and it is expected to rain ... figures doesn't it.  This October has been full of challenges from temperature at or over 100 degrees until 10-24-11, to pythium outbreaks and grass loss due to heat thus melting out, to less time to prep the golf course, to manpower shortage, to the street project slowing the team down, etc.

With everything throw at my team they still stepped up and performed their very best.  We may not have the green speeds I would want or the back nine may not be in the condition I like, or even the bunkers may not be finished prepped as I would do in the past, but I could not be more proud of my team and all of their hard work.  If you would have seed the golf course a week ago you would understand their efforts to make the best course they could.

Enjoy and realize we are still fixing issues ... but we will get there.

One More Day

Tomorrow is the big day ... the course will open.

We are still working quite hard on the golf course to get every thing ready for the opening and looking down at the list of things that have to get done still is always so daunting.  Since the weather is cooling down so much in the upcoming week we decided to change a couple things up and fertilize the golf course today to maximize it's effect on the ryegrass.  With all of the hot weather in Oct. the bermudagrass blossomed more than we like, thus to combat it's "yellowing" effect that will come in late Nov. or Dec., we are fertilizing it now ... just love changes but that is the nature of natual systems.

We may not get the entire list done that I would like but we will focus of the keys items to have the golf course ready.  I should note that while we are still repairing some of the back nine greens the height of cut will be higher than our usual, thus slower green speeds. 

Over the upcoming weeks we will bring everything back into place.  We are currently working on raising our staffing levels back to workable levels and hopefully we will be there soon.  Please bare with us during these first couple of weeks and you will be pleased where we are going.  And remember that this is the first year that we had less than 30 days to open thus our window for getting things done was greatly shortened.  Not to mention the disease issues that plagued the Valley & us this year.

Improvements

8's Approach 11-2-11

8's Approach (After pythium) on 10-21-11

We are starting to see some great recovery around the golf course from all of the team's hard work.  The approach on 8 was almost completely wiped out ... and now it has vastly improved.  The greens on the back nine ... well let's just say they improving everyday.

15's Green on 10-24-11

15's Green on 11-2-11

As you can see we are not 100% yet but we will be getting there soon.  12's green is where we have seen some of the greatest improvement after the pythium attack.

12's Green on 10-24-11

12's Green on 11-2-11

We will continue to focus our efforts on improving the greens and they will improve over the upcoming weeks, but sadly the green's speed will not be there for opening day due to the higher cut to allow the seed to continue to germinate.

Today The Practice Opens

Finally you get the chance to hit some golf balls here at Avondale today ... be at the practice only.  We finished setting the practice area up yesterday and continue to work on the golf course to get it ready for Friday's opening.

Almost all of the golf course supplies are on the golf course and today we will finish roping the F9 as well as mark the areas that are GUR ... yes Mr. Bentzen, I marked the golf course GUR areas.  Due to the pythium the rule will be lift, clean and place until we can get all of the reseeding to germinate.

Tomorrow the Practice Opens

We are doing the final prep work today to get the practice area ready to open tomorrow morning.  The CG & the PG are ready and in pretty good shape for the opening, but we still be doing some minor repair on them in the upcoming weeks.

Yesterday, we re-seeded the bad areas on the back nine and today we will be working on the front nine.  As I had the discussion with my team today again please remember to save the young and tender seedling by scattering your cart traffic.

Seeding

We just purchased more Poa Triv to be able to continue to seed and improve the Pythium infected greens.  Basically, everyday we are spot seeding the few remaining damaged greens.  Now with the roads finished around Avondale our focus will to germinate this seed before opening next Friday.

There is still lots to do before opening this upcoming Friday the 4th of Nov. and the team is focused on getting everything ready for that day.  Between being shorthanded and having five to seven days less than normal our maintenance team is on the right path and has been working extremely hard to get everything done.  Trust me ... it is quite a lot.

13's Green on 10-24-11

13's Green on 10-30-11

Vast Improvements

Back of 12's Green -- Improve in Past 3

With the weather improving we are starting to see re-growth in the weaken areas that were hit by the Pythium.  Over the past week we have added an additional 500 lbs of ryegrass seed to the fairways, 250 lbs of seed to the tees and other weakened areas, and have been re-seeding and lightly topdressing the damaged greens.  All of this hard work has been paying off and we will continue to improve over the upcoming couple of weeks.

13's Green of Right Side -- 50% Improvement from 3 Days Ago

It is Getting Better

The weather is cooling down and the hard work is starting to pay off ... the greens are improving.  Still lots of work to do but we are going down the right road now.  The fairways and tees have had their additional seed added and we should see improvement there soon.

It has been a tough year in the Valley with some losing their entire crop of seed.  So far we have been damaged but much less than others.  We have a week and a day before we open which we will spend a great deal of effort working on repairing any damage remaining.

The Wind Continues

All I wanted was a slight breeze and lower temperatures ... well I am getting 10 - 20 mph that are drying out the course alright but with the streets being done may lead to some more issues that we will have to deal with. 

We continuing to be aggressive with the greens repair and will continue to progress with the long list of things that need to be done before we open.  The good news is that the streets will be done this weekend and we can get back to unimpeded work.

Windy Conditions Requested

My Mom always told me to be careful for what you ask for ... I asked for a breeze and got a windstorm.  With the winds we were only able to seed a couple of hole's fairways but the good news is we got the ones that would be in the way of the road slurry tomorrow.  Instead of seeding we were able to fertilize the fairways and tees without worrying if to irrigation needed to water the fertilizer in was going to lead to more pythium.

Between the roads being done and us having to prep the golf course there may be some things that slip through the cracks before opening.  Our number one concern is the greens the were infected with pythium and their repair ... progress has been slow but going forward.  I even had to reach into my bag of tricks from growing bentgrass in the transition zone of Memphis TN and added to that to help expedite the damaged greens repairs.

Cooler and What This ... A Slight Breeze?

Yesterday we got finally some relief from the heat in the form of clouds ... felt cooler than the 92 degrees it was.  And then this morning there was a slight breeze blowing ... this is some good news for the turf.  Today once again we addressing the bad areas with some out of the box thinking and a little fertilizer.  Additionally, we are reseeding the fairways again today.

Darn Heat and Disease

Looking good ... isn't it?  Well lets look closer.

Not as nice up close ... let's look at another green like 12.



Not bad is it ... well another look up close.

Yikes!!  Not so good after all.  So what happened??  Due to the heat and the lack of wind Pythium raised its ugly head and damaged several of the back nine greens.  We have already reseed all of them, treated the disease and continue to spike in seed to repair these damaged greens.

Today, we noticed that the seed is ready in some cases to start germinating so we spiked in the seed, and lightly topdressed them.  Rest assure, ALL efforts are focused on repairing these diseased, damaged green.

97 Yesterday

It is still too hot and still no wind.  Yesterday reached 97 degrees but according to the weather channel this (today) is the last day of the heat.  We are continuing to attack the pythium struck areas and this week will seed the fairways once again,along with some fertilization.  We are seeing some improvement on the B9 greens but this week will show if all of our hard work has been successful.

98 Again!

Can we ever get a break from this weather ... please.  I sprayed numerous pythium spots yesterday, we have had to reseed numerous areas including some of the greens and still the heat without any wind continues.  According to the weather channel relief is right around the corner however, they have been saying that over the past week ... and again yesterday was 98 degrees.

Rest assure the crew is working hard to repair all of which Mother Nature is throwing at us but a little prayer would not hurt.