August Update

Another summer is drawing to a close in what has been another successful busy season for us on the golf course. Mother Nature has given us a mix of pretty much everything. June through early July was very wet and mostly mild and then from the second week in July until now it has been extremely dry and very hot. Through everything that Mother Nature has given us the golf course has handled it all very well. 

July was the beginning of having all staff working full time and we have tried our best to take full advantage of this. Bunker edging was completed in the first couple of weeks in July. This process involves us cutting away a very small amount of material along all of the bunker edges to re-establish a smooth/clean edge from overgrowth that occurs during the season. By the end of July a lot of irrigation improvements were taking place because it had been so hot and dry that we were starting to see where our irrigation inefficiencies were and where things needed to be fixed to ensure appropriate coverage.

A freshly edged bunker at 18 green

The last week in July saw us begin our major project work of the year. This major project involved installing new drainage (weeping tile and drainage rock in a trench) and new sand in a few bunkers that are traditionally wet and lacking sand. As of today we have completed 4 bunkers which were located on holes 3, 12, 15 and 16. We plan to complete a few more bunkers like this throughout the course continuing into fall. 

New drainage being installed

3 bunker after drainage and sand

August really began to test all the turf and our conditions as the last amount of precipitation had occurred a long time ago and we were seeing very high temperatures. We did see the development of some dry spots which were then taken care of either through hand watering to puddle and saturate the dry area or through the use of wetting agents. The wetting agents we use alter the soil to allow for the water to be retained and held within the soil and as a result help to reduce the occurrence of dry spots.

Hand watering a dry spot

Looking forward into the next month or so we have a lot of work planned. We will be performing a full core aeration on greens next week. During this process an aerator removes cores from the greens surface and these holes are then filled with sand. We perform this process for many plant health reasons. Some of these reasons include reducing compaction from golfer traffic and maintenance equipment operation, opening up the soil to improve water and nutrient infiltration, improve air/gas movement and exchange, and to reduce and remove thatch (the build up of dead and decaying plant matter from mowing at the surface), just to name a few main reasons.

We will then be soon getting into our fall fungicide and fertility programs to help prepare the grass plants for winter. Aeration will be performed to all tee boxes sometime in September also. And as mentioned previously some bunker and drainage improvement work will continue as time allows. 

We have accomplished a lot so far this season and are very happy with where the golf course is currently at. The hope is to continue this momentum into the fall and have a very successful end to the maintenance season.   

Hole 17 in July