The rain last night and today has totaled 1.6" thus far, with most of it soaking right in. Leading up to this point, we have been extremely dry with only 2" of rain in the last two months and .6" in the last 45 days. The abnormal dry conditions have no doubt made for some challenging conditions on the greens, some commenting that the greens are too fast and others telling me that they have never been better at FCC. An interesting fact is that we haven't rolled greens in over two weeks, the greens have just been plain fast without us trying.
Aerification went great on Monday and Tuesday. We poured the sand on then solid-tined them twice, once with a deep-tine machine going 10"deep, then once with our aerifier going 4" deep, each machine with 3/4" solid tines. After the sand dried, the sand was drug into the aerification holes, creating drainage channels and areas for optimal root growth. Over the next few days we will continue to work the sand in and start rolling the greens to smooth them out.
A load of trees (16 trees) arrived today, they will be planted around the property over the next coming weeks. 3 trees will be planted on the course with the remainder being planted along Country Club Drive in front of the tennis courts. The coincides with our Landscape Master Plan and part of our front entrance project.
The 10th hole project is going well, most of the sod was laid last week, yesterday we beat the rain and finished the drainage in the four bunkers. The goal this week is to install the sand in the bunkers, next week we will continue with sod if weather permits.
This is also the time of year were leaves are falling in droves. We are trying our best to keep a somewhat clean course and will continue to blow and mulch until the last leaf is off. The recent frosts have slowed the grass growth which is a tremendous help as we are now able to spend time on projects vs. mowing.
In our spare time we will begin delivering wood for members that burn through the winter. I have 7 loads on a waiting list that need to be delivered. If you would like a wood delivery for this winter, please let me know, the wood pile will be disappearing fast.
