Frost Delays

This time of year, we often have to delay the first tee times of the day due to frost.  This brief video from the USGA explains why we must avoid both walking and driving on frosted turf:

USGA Frost Delays

While the video discusses the potential for damage to the short grass, even at rough height, cart traffic can severely injure the grass:

As always, our goal is to provide the best playing conditions for you.  Protecting the health of the turf is obviously important in achieving this, and your patience is appreciated.

Hardly a drought buster...

If you can remember back to the weekend of October 11 and 12, we were dealing with a tropical storm off the coast, whose impact lasted through Tuesday.  While this may have led to four straight "bad hair" days, the total precipitation of 0.28" from this event was underwhelming, and did little to help our current rain deficit.

This is becoming an eerily familiar and spooky fall weather pattern, after we recorded a record-setting 0.00" of rainfall in October, 2024.  This year, through October 20, we are doing just slightly better with a total of 0.65" for the month.

A look at the low water level on #7 tells a tale.  Fortunately, this is a time of year when we aren't losing nearly as much moisture as during the heat of the summer.  However, this definitely isn't enough precipitation to jump start any thin areas and help them to recover.

Banishing "Bird Baths"

Standing water on a green isn't good for playability or turf health.  In theory, if the water is able to freely flow off, we should never have bird baths on a putting surface.  However, over time a combination of bunker sand, topdressing sand, and organic matter accumulates on the perimeters of greens, which can act like a dam.  

In order to address this, we need to do some targeted aerification on the small areas which are preventing the water from leaving the green.

This clearly isn't a one and done procedure, but takes an on-going effort to prevent these areas from getting worse.  And in some extreme cases we will break out the sod cutter and shave these spots down slightly to alleviate the issue.

So if you happen upon some holes in the collars and surrounds, you now know why they are there.