We are in the middle of a heat wave and that means that the focus on the field is on getting through it as well as possible so that we are able to start our long-term maintenance work in September.
We must ensure that our nighttime watering on greens and tees can keep up and that the vulnerable areas that do not have proper water coverage are protected with hand watering.
We are also reducing the number of mowings in areas that do not receive water. Here I am thinking primarily of fairways, but mowing frequencies on greens and green surroundings can also be reduced so that they can better escape the heat stress they will experience in the near future.
Last week we changed the plans we had announced for work on the greens. Instead of top dressing, we chose to vertically cut a number of greens with a slightly too dense grass cover and reseeded our weakest greens 1, 18 and the putting green. The result was really good. Top dressing is incredibly important, but when the growth on the green is so controlled and limited, we could choose not to do it.
Please note that you can now take a bag containing some sand and grass seed with you on your round from the starter house. This is for repairing divots on the fairways. If you wish, you can keep the bag and refill it with sand and seed from a bucket also set up at the starter house. Otherwise, put the bag back and the greenkeepers will refill it. In any case, you will be helping to keep our fairways in good condition.