The new putting green by the first tee is coming along well. Thus far, we have aerified it both with small hollow tines, as well as with solid tines. The next step will be to aerify it with the rest of the greens on the course in two weeks.
Again, the sod for this green came from three different sources on site, so the more we can "stir things up" the more uniform the green will be.
While decisions are always weather-dependent, we are hoping to open the green for use at the end of May.
The course got nailed by some heavy storms Saturday afternoon, with 2+" of rain coming down in an hour. During an event like that, one thing we don't expect to see is the pump station go from zero flow to 500 gallons per minute.
At the same time this flow occurred, eight of the irrigation controllers got knocked offline. So what happened? A ride down #6 at least showed where the water was going...
The irrigation controllers that had blown fuses, were all in the area of this pipe break. Finding shattered pieces of PVC pipe on the ground provided the final clue as to the cause: A lightning strike
With any luck, we will have this pipe repaired and get the fairway cleaned up quickly.
No, it's not that kind of four letter word, but one that is just as cringe-worthy in the golf maintenance world: Leak
If you've been on #4 green lately, the racing stripes from a hydraulic leak are hard to miss. While it's virtually impossible to completely prevent these from occurring, this one was more frustrating than most.
The triplex mower which leaked the oil, had been serviced over the winter, including the replacement of the key hydraulic hoses--all done in an effort to prevent such a problem. Unfortunately, in this case, a small o-ring split, causing the leak.
The other factor which led to more turf damage here, was the fact that this accident happened prior to the spring irrigation system start-up. While we are prepared to quickly address any oil spill, one of the keys to diluting the oil is water. With no immediate source of water out on #4, there was a significant delay in getting the cleanup underway.
While it's tough to just look at these lines each day, they are primarily an aesthetic issue. We will be aerifying the greens in a few weeks, which will be a great opportunity to address the problem and push recovery. Any other measures we took prior to that would definitely cause some surface disruption, so this is a time for patience.
With an unlimited supply of balls to hit on the range, there's no doubt that the practice tee takes a beating on a busy day. Just take a look at a single station after one day:
