Rain

Findlay Country Club received one inch of rain today.  It was very much needed as we have not had rain in 3 weeks.  Carts are still allowed, the course soaked the rain right up.

Green speeds

Over the course of the last few months, I have heard more than one comment and/or discussion about the inconsistency of green speeds in the past.  Please keep in mind that there are many things that come into play the affect green speeds.  Things like mowing height, rolling, soil moisture, humidity and grass growth during the day.  Some of these items a Superintendent can control, others we can't.  We try our best to be consistent, but on some days Mother Nature takes over.  I am mentioning this because I have measured green speed daily during the past two weeks and I am happy to note that during the last two weeks we have been very consistent in speed from day to day.  The deviation from my target speed has been minimal.  This is mainly attributed to the weather pattern, it hasn't changed much.  The moisture levels in the greens are very consistent from day to day and our maintenance of the greens is very routine.  My hope in the future is to not deviate from the speeds that you are currently experiencing unless Mother Nature thinks otherwise.

Flowers

The Grounds crew has been busy this week planing our annuals.  We purchase 200 flats of annuals every year which mainly get planted around the clubhouse.  This is a great indicator that summer is arriving.



Bunker rakes



I have received a lot of questions regarding the placement of bunker rakes.  "Do we leave them in or out?"  I prefer to leave the bunker rakes out of the bunkers only for the reason that we typically rake bunkers more often than we mow the grass around the bunker and not having to move the rakes every time we rake the bunker is a time saver.  When we mow the grass around the bunkers we will send a person around to put all the rakes inside of the bunker to speed up the process of mowing the banks.  On the next day we will take them all back out again.  So whether you come across a rake in or out, the best option is for you to leave it out when you are done.

Leave the rake out when you are done.



Rough

We have lowered the height on our rough mowers this past week.  Typically during the spring we have to raise rough heights to manage the clippings from the fast growing rough.  As soon as the growth starts to slow down we are able to lower the heights.  We have lowered the height from 3" down to 2.5".  During this process you will see more clippings until we catch up.  We typically see a lot of clumped clippings in the mornings when there is dew on the ground, as needed we will come back to these areas in the afternoon and re-mow them to break up the grass clumps.



The height has been lowered, but more clipping will be present for a few weeks

Tissue testing

About once a month, I will take a sample of the grass clippings from the greens and send them to a laboratory to be tested.  What they are testing is the concentration of nutrients within the clippings, things like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium.  I do this for two reasons, 1 - to make sure the products that I am using are being taken up by the plant and the money that is spent on fertilizers is spent efficiently and 2 - I want to know if certain products should be added or removed from our application schedule.  I don't want to spend money on a product that is not needed, or more importantly, if the turf is deficient in a nutrient, I want to make sure we replenish its supply.

Bag of grass clippings from the greens mower.  This will be sent to a laboratory for testing.

Fungus

A good portion of the Grounds department's budget is spent on chemicals and fertilizers that are applied to the greens, tees, fairways and roughs.  Most of the chemical applications that are made are in effort to prevent fungi and diseases from damaging the turf and affecting playing conditions.  Fungi are ever present in the soil, the goal is to keep them in check.  Sometimes a fungus has a breakthrough and shows itself, then we go into a curative approach and minimize the damage.  A few weeks ago a fungus called Waitea Patch showed itself on a few greens.  This is not a damaging fungus unless left unchecked for an extended period of time (weeks).  The only problem this fungus causes is unsightly yellow rings, it doesn't kill the turf or effect ball roll.  Here are some pictures of the fungus and the healing process.

Day 1

Day 4

Day 7