Consider The Reset Button Pushed

June and early July had been relatively dry as far as rainfall goes. While we were sufficiently maintaing with irrigation, I was asking for the reset button to be pushed in terms of getting some good, flushing rain. Consider that button pushed! We've experienced over 8 inches of rain in the past week and more rain is beginning to fall at this moment. 

   Rain rolling across #1 fairway

Included with the summer storms comes lightning. Sometimes it's too close for comfort. A recent lightning strike hit a couple of our Washingtonian Palms on #1. Keep this strike in mind when deciding whether or not to keep golfing or take shelter.

  Notice the peeling bark streaking down the tree

The grounds department continues to progress nicely on the new retaining wall along the parking lot. The construction should be complete within the next 2 weeks leaving just the backfill and landscape work remaining.

Scottish Crows

Waiting for these crows at The Open Championship to fly off with a golf ball. Evidently, they are not related to Isla crows!

Pushing The Reset Button

As usual, this summer has kept the grounds department busy. Everything grows much faster this time of year plus this is when we do most of our projects. The most recent project underway is replacement of the retaining wall along the south side of the main parking lot. The old wooden wall was in extremely poor condition. A new vinyl wall, like the one installed on #5 last year, will be taking it's place. 

   Nice progress after just 3 days of work.

So far this summer has been hot and dry. June brought only 2.5 inches of rain. Most of that came in a 2-day period. We've had a little rain this week but we are still looking for a nice flushing rain to "push the reset button." The hot and dry weather has caused several dry spots on the golf course. A good rain will help these areas recover. A few of the greens have experienced hot spots as well. Most significantly, #14 green suffered some areas of wilt after encountering an irrigation issue. Unfortunately, paspalum greens take a long time to recover from drought stress. We will continue to promote recovery and restore these spots back to their normal pristine condition.

   Visible signs of drought stress

   Wilted areas on #14 green.

Another normal part of summer maintenance is weed control. We undertake a diligent spot-spraying regimen in the summer where we direct herbicide applications specifically to actively growing weeds. This sometimes results in the grass turning brown around the weeds sprayed. This is a short-term effect and the grass quickly recovers while the weeds die.

   Areas of grass following herbicide treatment.