Heatwave Replaced by Rain

The end of the brutal heatwave of July and early August 2016 has subsided but in its place is another set of challenging conditions put forth by good old Mother Nature: Rain... and lots of it.  The weekend brought nearly 4 inches to the courses and since then we have experienced mostly cloudy weather and light intermittent rains.  This has slowed down the drying process on each course to a snail's pace.  As I write this the rain has once again settled in and completely erased what little bit of drying out we enjoyed over the past two days.  

WASHOUTS

The hard rains over the weekend washed out the bunkers at Irving Park.  All the hard work on Saturday was for not as the rain Saturday night came down even faster and harder.   It is now Wednesday and we are finally making the last few repairs.  The bunkers on the Farm course were built with washing in mind and are much less susceptible to the erosion effects of hard rains.  

The washing effects not only make the bunkers unplayable until they are repaired but they carry sediment from the base of the bunker that contaminates the sand and slows down the it's overall drainage properties.



















DISEASE

While the greens at both our courses are still hanging in there that is not the case at several nearby courses.  The heat in July lead to significant root loss leaving behind dead decaying root tissue.  Add that to the current wet pattern we are in and disease is beginning to appear on the greens.  Samples that were submitted to the NCSU Turf Pathology lab yesterday confirmed high counts of Pythium on the Irving Park greens.  These greens are Cato Bentgrass, which has shown itself to be more susceptible to disease during hot, humid conditions. The Farm greens are also showing thinning on several greens but mostly on the front 9 where sunlight and air movement is limited by tree growth.  

Accepting we have done everything we can up to this point with our mowing, spraying and cultivation strategies we do expect to see continual thinning on the greens at each course throughout the month of August.  All we can do going forward is to continue to stay vigilant, plan for the worst and hope for the best.

On top of the concerns with our greens, this is always a difficult time of the year for our staff.  Nearly all of our seasonal college guys have left early to go back to school, which leaves us very shorthanded for the next 4 weeks or so while the course is still growing at peak rate.  So, when we do finally get a chance to get out and start mowing some grass and things look a little worse then we hope for I hope everyone understands that sometimes you just have to take what the dealer throws your way and do the best you can.