The heat of summer has come and gone (for now) and this recent cool stretch has made my life a lot easier. The one week of uncomfortable weather set the new greens back a bit. What happens is the high humidity will make the thatch layer swell or as I term it “puff” and the result is the mowers will scalp the canopy and leave unsightly marks. If corrective action is not taken immediately then the damaged areas will soon die. I was able to see the scalp marks right away and for the next few days skipped mowing and just rolled the greens. I raised the height of cut about .040” and began alternating mowing and rolling. After about a week, the weather cooled, and we were out of the danger zone. No turf was loss, but the progression towards matching the other greens was sent backwards. A couple of topdressings later, the new greens are now once again very near the quality of the existing greens.
As for the “Dog Days of Summer”, the staff has caught up on mowing and completed several projects. We did finally finish burning the pile of brush on the Ravenholt property and now can look foreword to burning our new pile on golf course property. So far this year, the equipment and the irrigation have been holding up fairly well, but the various pump motors we have seem to be failing. The sump pump on hole 2 went out this spring but since we got it repaired, the rains have stopped. Over the last few weeks, the fountain on 9 pond died and is presently being repaired. Then, the fountain on pond 7 stopped working and I am working on getting that repaired as well. I did have the pond on 7 sprayed and should be cleaning up shortly.
Other then the above mentioned items, daily routines are nice and comforting. It makes the transition into the next season easy. Until next month………..
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