Time to Build an Ark?

Since late July we have had many days of weather that is not typical of Florida summers. While we are used to rainfall this time of year, it usually comes in the form of afternoon showers. In contrast, we have experienced many cloudy days where the rains start early in the morning. Until this week, most of the rains have brought relatively small amounts with each event, but their consistency and the lack of sunny weather causes the golf course to stay very wet. Today we received 5.1 inches of rainfall, bringing our August total to 9.8". Obviously, this has an effect on our everyday maintenance as we are very restricted on where we can mow, we have had to postpone fertilizer applications, the grass is unable to fully photosynthesize (make food for itself) and our workday productivity has been disrupted. Fortunately, the weather is forecast to turn back to normal beginning next week.

These boards floated off the footbridge on #8 all the way up to the cart path by the green

The red arrow shows how high the water reached on the wall by 18 green before receding

Although we've had a lot of poor weather for growing grass, the new tees continue to mature. Many of you have asked if all the rain has helped or hurt the grow-in process. The answer is both. We always welcome fresh rain water. The grass prefers that over reclaimed water, especially when it is young. However, the abundance of cloudy weather means the grass is not able to effectively use the sun for photosynthesis. Another detriment has been our inability to fertilize over the past week. The rain has also limited our ability to mow and sand topdress as frequently as we would prefer. Regardless, we continue to push forward and it won't be long until they are ready for play.

#4 Tee - August 1st

#4 Tee - August 12

#12 Forward Tee - August 1st

#12 Forward Tee - August 12

While the rain has delayed some of our work, we have still been able to make some headway this week. Due to rain and heavy demand, sod has been difficult to come by since June. After a month of having two loads on order, one load of sod came available Wednesday morning for the slope left of the back tee on #8. The remainder of that load was used to sod around a new drain by 16 tee that was installed Monday. While we had hoped to install a new drain on #10 tee Tuesday, Mother Nature had other plans. We hope for better weather on Monday to finish this task. We are also keeping our fingers crossed for a timely delivery of the last load of sod needed to finish work around the new drains and other areas that have been prone to washouts.

While much of the golf course was covered in water, this area by #16 tee only had a small puddle following 5.1" of rain. Signs of an effective drainage project.

This photo on #8 was taken while the guys took a well-deserved lunch break.

Pedro was pumping this standing water away from #10 tee in preparation for drainage installation. Unfortunately, we were rained out from completing the project. Fingers crossed for next week!