Recent rains and reseeding

On Saturday morning, the golf course took on another 2.5" of rain.  Yesterday morning, we got .3" and more rain is in the forecast for this afternoon.  I have been searching for the record rainfall in a 30 day period in Findlay - if you find it, let me know, I think we may be close to record amounts of rain.  For the month of July we are currently at 8.8" with 9 days to go in the month.  In the last 28 days we have received 11.3" of rain.  That is a lot of rain in one months time.

I want to thank my crew for hanging in there the past 3 weeks.  It has been tough with long hours at times.  They have done a great job getting the course back into shape after all these rains.

Bunkers on Saturday morning.  We had 3 guys work until 6pm Saturday night to get the water off the fairways.  They then showed up early Sunday morning to get the course ready and came back Sunday afternoon to mow fairways to prepare for the Monday outing.

Last Friday, we started reseeding the areas we lost turf due to the rain.

The smaller areas in the fairways we are seeding by hand.

Last week was spent on tree clean up from the storm.  The Hickory on 18 was the last one we cleaned up.  We had to wait until it was dry enough to drive our equipment down next to the green.

 

Storm Clean-up

We are in the process of cleaning up last nights storm.  We got another 1.5" and lots of wind.

10 approach

Hickory down by 18 green

1 Fairway

5 Fairway

16 Fairway

Spruce down by 16 Fairway

Maple down by 17 Fairway

Debris on 2 tee

Ducks on 8 Fairway

2 days ago, I rented a 3" pump.  I had a hunch we might need it.  It is coming in handy right now - good thing we got it when we did, it would be hard to locate one now.

I want to thank Chad and his staff, currently we have 7 of his guys out here helping us with the clean-up efforts.  We are getting a lot done in a short amount of time.

 

 

Minimizing the damage

From a distance, the golf course looks good out there - nice and green.  As you drive around, you start to notice how wet it really is.  Today, most of our activities were about minimizing the damage done by the recent weather.

We had guys squeegeeing off fairways all day, keeping the puddle off the fairways.  If water sits too long on hot days like this, the turf will die.

We aerified all the greens, opening up air channels to help the roots get much needed air.

We started spiking fairways, again - getting air to the roots.

When it rains like it did last night, and as puddles form, grass clipping congregate around the puddles.  As the puddle recedes, it leaves a pile of clippings.  If left on the fairway too long, this will also kill grass.  We went to each fairway to clean up these piles.

We made a timely fungicide application to the greens to help combat the the things we don't want to see around here.  With this hot and humid weather, an outbreak can easily occur.

Believe it or not, we actually mowed some of the wettest fairways today.  Some of these fairways have not been mowed since Friday.  All the fairways were supposed to be mowed Monday morning, but with the rain, we were only able to mow the drier ones.  If more rain comes tonight, we might not be able to mow the rest of them until Saturday.  By that time the fairways will be 3" long.  We are doing the lesser of 2 evils and mowing them today.  It is no doubt leaving a mess, but it is nothing that can't get washed away.

 

After a rain like this, I would like nothing more than to send my guys home and keep all traffic off the course.  But with the heat and humidity we have no choice than to make a few mud tracks and minimize the damage.

Another post about rain

We've now had consistent, and by that I mean daily, rain since June 25.  This weekend another 1" fell on the course and last night we got 2".  This brings our total to 7" in the last 14 days - that is 2 months worth of water.  The puddling around the course has not been that bad until last night.  This was due to the frequent but relatively small amounts of rain we got.  Although there have not been puddles, this has made the ground saturated because of the fact that it has all soaked in.

Today the course is closed.  We are going to spike the greens again to let them breath.  We will also be removing the water from the fairways and fixing all the bunkers from last nights storm.

There is a chance for rain the next few days.  If we don't get more rain, we will be open tomorrow but carts will not be allowed.  We will re-evaluate for Thursday.

8 fairway

Squeegeeing off 5 fairway

Current water level on 18

 

 

The rain keeps coming

Last night we took on another .7" at the golf course, giving us very saturated and wet conditions.  We've now had 4" of rain in the last 10 days.

We had to squeegee fairways and greens this morning.  The water on #8 fairway had to be pumped off. 

We spent 20 man hours cleaning up the debris from the fireworks.  All of the fallout landed on 8 and 9.  We had it back to normal before the first groups made it through.

 

OSU Message, Fox

Below is a link to a YouTube video message by OSU.  It reinforces my decision to spike the greens yesterday and again today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=AcYNDNJzXIQ


I captured some great photos of one of our foxes:

Taking a nap in #1 greenside bunker

He had squirrel for lunch

He buried half of it for a later snack

 

Rain and the greens

In the past week, 3" of rain has fallen on the golf course.  This doesn't seem like a lot compared to other places around us, but it has definately made the golf course soft.  The first rain soaked right in and you never knew it rained an inch.  After that the ground started to get saturated.  The past few days the greens have been looking a little off - a little orange.  This is because they can't get enough oxygen.  With the lack of drainage in the greens, the extra water sits there until it can slowly drain through the clay.  With the higher soil temps, the roots and plants can not handle the lack of oxygen in the soil.  Therefore, we spiked the greens today to open up air channels and allow the soil to breathe.  We may do the same tomorrow to give the greens their best chance of making it through this wet spell.

 

This size of the holes

 

You will notice some areas of the greens seem orange.

Green posts

Between 9 tee and the road to the left, there are multiple barriers that will keep traffic off the golf course in the event a car veers off the road.  There is a row of large wooden poles, a row of large bushes, a row of metal tubing and then a white fence.  The white fence and bushes are more for looks than actually stopping cars.  Last week we took out the unsightly green metal tubing.  Not only will this look more appealing, it will also allow us to be more efficient in mowing this area.  Prior to removal we had to string trim the entire area from the white fence to the road - taking 5 man hours every time.  Now we can mow a large section of this.

Drainage, bridges and wetting agents

Last week we added a drain to the low area in the intermediate along 18 approach.  This spot always collects water when it rains and grass is unable to survive the saturated soils.  The constant dirt patch will now remain turf.

 

 

 

 

We also lifted the sod around the walk bridges.  Over the years the turf at the entrance and exit of the bridge has settled, this made quite a bump for the walkers as they used the bridge.  We lifted the sod and added rocks and more soil underneath.

 

Today, wetting agents were sprayed on the fairways.  This makes the water more effective to the turf by breaking the tension between water and the soil.  This will allow us to water slightly less - keeping the fairways firmer while still maintaining a good appearance. 

 

 

Changes

This past week we implemented a few changes around FCC.

Toward the back end of the driving range we added 4 new flags.  From the front of the back range tee, these flags are at 40, 60, 80 and 100 yds.  This will give you chance to practice your short irons.

We tore out some landscaping near the Clubhouse and added new bushes.

The old bushes were dying and overgrown.

 

Last week we started mowing fairways only in the afternoons and evenings.  We have one individual that comes in at 12:00 and works until 8:00 pm. to mow fairways.  This allows us to mow them when they are dry, therefore getting a much better cut.  This also saves us time and gas by not having to send out blowers behind the mowers.

 

We mowed down 5 spots to test out a new "Gold" course.

 

Our current Gold course is only 80yds longer than the Red - essential we don't have a Gold course.  Chad and I have set up 5 new teeing areas for the Gold tees.  We mowed down temporary tees on 1,4,15,16 and 18.  The Gold course is now playing at 5,700yds.  If all goes well, we may build tees in the future, near these areas.  This will give us a Red course at 5,300yds, Gold at 5,700, White at 6,400 and Blue at 6,850.  We will then eliminate the White/Gold course.

Soil testing

Every year we have a soil consultant come out and take soil samples - we then test them for levels of nutrients that the turf needs.  We also test the tissue of the grass to determines what nutrients are in the plant, this gives me an idea of what the plant has and what is available to the plant.  Last week we took samples to get this testing done.  We also took samples of our water to determine salt levels and other contaminates. 

 

We found 4" roots on our poa greens, that is good for this time of year.

Every other year we will perform a physical analysis of the soil to determine how the greens drain and if the rootzone of the soil is adequate.  This will give us the information we base our aerifications on.

Patio open!

The last of the details were finished up today on the patio.  After the contractor was done sealing the patio, we were able to put landscaping around the bottom portion.  Tomorrow we will begin seeding the lawn below the patio and fixing the landscaping near the parking area below the hill.

The Clubhouse staff has put the furniture out and is ready for use.  Make your reservation now to enjoy this new addition of our service to our members.

 

 

Early April

 

Mid April

 

Mid May

 

June 5