Construction Update

In addition to contending with all of this summer's hot weather, the Master Plan construction has been keeping us on our toes for the past month.  

While things are progressing smoothly, there are always challenges when working around play, and some areas are easier than others.  Installing a new drain line from the right side of #5 to the left involved crossing the fairway.

Currently, work is taking place on #2, 4, 5, and 6.  #9 and 15 will be next, completing the bunker work, followed by some tee improvements on #5 and 7.

Striking the right balance

Fortunately, the weather forecast was (once again) incorrect last week, and we had some great weather for aerifying fairways.  But, in case you haven't flipped on the news lately, the region is in a serious rain deficit.  Among other things, this means we have been trying to recover from aerification relying solely on sprinklers.  

Clear skies and another 90 degree day will dry things out.

Until the holes are fully healed, the fairways will need plenty of water, and be very soft.  Similar to an ice cube with a hole in it, which has more surface area to cool your beverage, the unhealed holes have additional surface area from which we can lose moisture.

No irrigation system can provide the uniformity of  rainfall.  Given the fairway mounding, it's not uncommon to have areas which are turning toasty brown just a few feet away from a swale which is too wet, and tracks up from carts.  

Too wet and too dry are not very far apart.

With continued above average temperatures this week, the goal each morning is to start out with enough moisture to get us through the day, and not need to run sprinklers.  We always say, it takes one good rain to get things healed--and this year, an end to the 90s might help as well.  Monday provided us with the largest single rain event in over two months.

The patients are in the ICU

This past week, we went ahead with greens aerification, as scheduled.  Like many surgical procedures a person might undergo, aerification is beneficial to the turf in the long-run, however it is also quite stressful in the short-term.  As the days leading up to aerification approached, and we looked at the weather forecast, thoughts of, "The patient is too weak, can they survive surgery?" popped into our heads.  After all, how many people would be able to withstand surgery in a 97 degree OR!

A miserable weather stretch to aerify in.

Fortunately, as we near one week post-surgery, it looks like the greens made it through the "punching" in good shape.  Once past the actual day of aerification, they can relax and recover--it's now easier for them to breathe, and they will be kept well-hydrated.

As the Sun rises, #11 is being rolled, post-aerification

While most people focus on the daily high temperatures, the nighttime lows are equally important to plant health.  During the 10 day heat wave we just went through, we stayed in the 70's and close to 80 degrees many nights, allowing no relief to the turf, all while providing great growing conditions for some nasty plant pathogens.

So, after many hot, humid mornings this summer, it felt amazing to get up on Saturday and actually have to reach for a light jacket.  Undoubtedly, August will show its teeth again and go down swinging, but this brief respite from the heat and humidity is appreciated by both flora and fauna!

A lot of plates up in the air...

 With turf roots at their shortest of the entire year, standing on its own, August is always a challenging month.  Every year, this is also when we aerify the greens, tees and fairways, which is a massive undertaking from a labor perspective.

There are a few agronomic reasons why it's important to get aerification completed now, but labor is also part of the equation, since we will soon be losing several employees as they return to school. 

If that's not enough fun and games, 2022 has an additional wrinkle as our Master Plan work commences on the same day as greens aerification.  With supply chain issues, the planning for this year's work began well in advance, and we have had some materials on the ground for several months.  But some of the preparation can not be addressed until just before the actual construction begins.  

Included in this, is the tracing and marking of existing irrigation lines.  As you play the first holes where bunker work will take place (#2, 4, and 5), you may see a good deal of paint and flags.  With bunkers being changed,  we also went ahead and knocked down the backside of the Fescue on the areas which will be under construction.  This allows a cleaner view of the land as well as the buried infrastructure to be avoided, or potentially relocated.

Fescue is cut, and irrigation lines marked on #4 field bunker.

The construction sequence will be to rebuild the remaining bunkers on #2, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 15, address tees on #5 and 7, then finish up at #1 tee and the putting green.