Where The Green Grass Grows

We seem to have an abundance of green grass growing here at Isla Del Sol. It sure beats the alternative but it has been difficult to keep up with the mowing. We've experienced over 6.5" of rain over the past two weeks which has resulted in faster grass growth and reduced mowing time. Due to soggy conditions we have lost 4 days of mowing over the past two weeks because the golf course was too wet. It's important to understand that it takes all 3 of our fairway mowers 2.5 to 3 days to mow the golf course just one time under normal conditions. This normally allows us to mow everything 2 times per week which is typically frequent enough to provide the excellent conditions you prefer.  Keep in mind that almost our entire golf course is being maintained at fairway height including tees, fairways and green slopes. Due to faster growing grass and reduced mowing time the mowers have struggled to keep up. This has resulted in taller grass on the fairways and tees than we are accustomed to. This taller grass not only impacts play but also slows our mowers down as the workers often have to mow the same spot 3 times to get the grass fully cut. Obviously, this slows the process and makes it difficult to mow the entire golf course even one time in one week. For example, it took approximately 10 man-hours just to mow #6, one of our smallest par 4's! The grounds department will be working extra hours over the weekend to continue working towards catching up. If the weather cooperates, we hope to be caught up by the end of next week.

   Tall grass on a tee

   Trails of clippings left behind a mower.

   Placido on his second cut of this fairway.

Not only has the wet weather impacted the mowing process but it has impacted our weed control as well. Herbicide applications must be avoided during times of rain. This coupled with wet soil which promotes weed seed germination puts us behind in our control program. We experienced similar conditions last September but were able to catch up in October once the weather cooperated. 

   Tall grass mixed with nutsedge (weed) on 6 fairway.