It's already June!!

Thanks to everyone for helping us keep the bunkers in better condition. Everyone is placing the rakes on the painted spots and I believe bunkers are much improved! These last few weeks have seen plenty of rainfall changing our fast golf course into a slow one more normally associated with spring weather. Greens were aerated and fertilized in early May. Frequent rains (9 inches since April 23) and aggressive growth kept greens slow while they healed from their biannual breath of fresh air through aeration.

With greens and fairway turf aggressively growing again, we have taken steps the last week to speed things up. Growth regulators have been applied and have begun to work. Of all the applications we make in a year, the first spring application that slows plant growth is my favorite because of the dramatic change to greens and fairways. Because of the recent rains growth of the rough has exploded. The second rough mower has been sent out to keep the rough manageable. Another extra step will be done weekly until grass growth slows later in June. After rough mowing has concluded for the week, we have been mowing three or four loops around each fairway every Friday. This will help to keep the rough closest the fairways at a consistent length for weekend golf.

GREY LEAF SPOT..revisited.

Remember the grey spot damage fairways saw last September and October? We certainly do, and the memories aren't fond ones. Fairways have mostly healed quite well from that disease and I'd like to illustrate one point. At the beginning of the seventh fairway, thin turf is still evident. Damage was worse on other fairways but healing is slower here because this turf sees less quality sunshine than other areas that were hit even harder. The slow healing on seven fairway demonstrates even further the turf's need for quality sun all day long. This week we will begin adding sod to green edges from our turf nursery. Later in the year we will re-sod both the bunker edges and face of 16 bunker. Ongoing projects include clubhouse beautification projects and re-seeding stump holes that were worked on earlier during the season.

WHY DO WE APPLY TONS OF MUCH SAND WHEN WE AERATE GREENS????

The golf course was drenched by almost an inch of rain Saturday morning just before golfers were to go out for the Walter Johnson tournament. Carts would have done plenty of damage to the golf course so carts were not allowed Saturday. However, greens drained quickly and were ok to play on for golfers who walked. Greens performed well after this (and other) rainfall events because of the 40 tons of pure sand that are added every year during aeration and topdressing processes. There is now an impressive layer of pure sand on top of greens that removes water quickly. Please join me on twitter at PotoGreens!

We hope to see everyone on the golf course very soon....!