Then the rain finally came! Not much, but enough to give the golf course a breather after almost 3 weeks of sun and heat. Just as quietly, the fairways, semiroughs and bunker edges will start to turn green. It's a good fit because there are 2 very busy weeks ahead for the club with several company days, club championships and gun starts in connection with clubs-in-clubs.
Therefore, no major maintenance work is planned on the course in the next two weeks. The par 3 course's greens and foregreens will be patched in week 36.
After two weeks of the fairway mowers being idle, the greenkeepers are ready to start mowing again. First, we take our rotary mowers over the fairways to remove the long blades of grass that have grown up during the drought. It is a natural defense that the grass sets seed when there is a drought, but if the blades get too long, they cannot be cut with our regular fairway mowers. After this process, we bring a new round of rinse aid to the fairways. Using rinse aid to improve water availability has been a new initiative this year and may have been a contributing factor in the fact that visiting players and members have praised our fairways for being some of the greenest during the drought period. That is new!
The greens and surrounds have also come through the drought well, the greens roll very evenly between 9 and 10 feet depending on whether they have been mowed, tumbled or both on the same day. The greens are softer than usual which is because we have had to water the surrounds more than usual. The greens are actually very strong, while the surrounds and foregreens quickly become dry and yellow. The reason for this is that our irrigation system is designed to only suit the greens, while today it suits the surrounds as well. An increase of a total of 250%. but notice 8 green systems. In June we established dedicated area sprinklers and foregreens irrigators as a trial which has resulted in significantly better water distribution, less stress, no overwatering of the greens and green, dense foregreen rather than yellow and open.
2 large trees gave up last week. Without warning they fell down quite close to the course. The forest was quick to move aside, but look up and be careful.
In conclusion: Use the moisture to apply our new fairway divot bags and find some impact marks to fix.
Enjoy.