Dog Days of Summer

Staff is currently working on rectifying drainage issues post-renovation. Many of our drainage basins stay wet for days after a substantial rain event (we are again experiencing numerous heavy rain events this summer). We are excavating the problematic basins and backfilling with sand to assist with lateral, subsurface water movement. We will be adding additional tile lines and drains to the 16th fairway to improve the wet conditions, especially along the right side. During construction, a dump truck buried itself in that area, requiring multiple vehicles to extract it. Needless to say, there is a great deal of water moving beneath the surface in that area.

Drilling holes in a solid basin standpipe prior to wrapping with a geotextile fabric and backfilling with sand.

Approximately four holes of rough remain to be treated for broadleaf weeds. That operation will resume when the weather cools down. Our bentgrass fairways do contain a fair population of a broadleaf weed known as plantain. It is fairly easy to remove but we will wait until this fall to avoid damaging the bentgrass or any seedlings emerging in seeded areas with a herbicide.




Typical plantain currently found in our fairways.

 



As the weather cools, we will begin sodding some of our more problematic areas in the collars surrounding the greens. We will use sod from our nursery area that is cut at collar height. First we have to get the localized dry spot under control that currently plagues our nursery turf.

 

 

Some areas on 18 collar to be sodded in the near future.

Nursery turf  showing LDS (Localized Dry Spot).

   

Orange-colored areas indicate areas of LDS and highly compacted soils. We have been spraying a water infiltration product this season, but its effectiveness is no longer satisfactory with the onset of warm summer temperatures.

LDS is quite prevalent in our fairways right now. It is caused by soil particles and/or organic matter becoming hydrophobic and actually repelling water. Soil compaction definitely contributes to this condition and we have plenty of that. As temperatures begin to cool in the fall, aggressive aerification will begin. Hopefully, by then, we will have acquired a new deep-tine aerifier capable of creating 8.5 inch holes and shattering the soil profile at the same time.