Week of August 22
- matthewbehl
- Aug 26, 2022
- 3 min read
The golf course received .33 inches of rain on Monday afternoon into the evening. While this rain isn't substantial and not a drought breaker it did provide a break from dragging hoses. It also gave the irrigation system a break and allowed for some replenishment of the irrigation pond. The ponds on 6 were the latest ponds to be pumped into the irrigation pond on 5.
With the little cushion of water the rain provided we are moving forward with greens aeration. Greens aeration will start on Monday, August 29th. We will be core aerating the greens, cleaning the plugs from the green, topdressing with sand, and brushing the greens. In preparation for greens aeration, we backed off on the use of growth regulators on greens. This might mean slightly slower playing conditions over this weekend, but will help in the quick healing of the greens surface come aeration. As soon as the greens heal we will resume aggressive growth regulator applications in an effort to control poa annua and to help in providing firm, fast playing conditions.
The replenishment of the irrigation pond has also allowed for my team and I to start fairway recovery work. Seed has been added into fairways 1,3,4,7,8,10, and 17. Some areas have been topdressed and soil amendments have been added. All in all, I am happy with the way the fairways are recovering. As soon as we finish with greens aeration, fairway recovery work will continue. The agronomy teams goal is to have fairways in better condition and with more bentgrass then prior to the beginning of the drought. The company (Invited) has also purchased us a new seeder which will help with the drought recovery and future bentgrass conversions on fairways. The seeder will also be a game changer for the rough as we will now be able to start inter seeding into the rough. We are very excited to be getting this seeder!
Fairway mowing frequency will be increased albeit at an increased mowing height. Fairway height has been raised 30 thousands of an inch to aid in recovery and seed establishment.
We are not far away from allowing cart traffic back on fairways. Ideally, I would like to be irrigating rough again before this occurs. When we do allow carts back onto fairways some holes will be remaining cart path only to help with recovery and seed establishment. A sign will be posted on the tee if that hole is to remain cart path only. Also the exit signs for carts may be further back then usual on certain fairways. Please exit at the signs directly to the cart path and play the rest of the hole from the cart path. Examples of where this might occur are the 6th and 8th fairways.
We have also been largely a goose-free golf course for over a week. Once they can fly and we can harass them with the bird bangers they tend to leave. The early goose hunting season opens Sept. 2nd. There is usually a fair amount of hunting in the Ipswich area. Geese tend to come back into the golf course again as they view it as a safe place. These flocks are usually easy to get to leave as the sound of the bird banger is similar to a shotgun. Hopefully we can stay goose-free for the remainder of the year.
The drought is far from over, but there is a chance of rain this evening. Hopefully we will receive some and we will continue to trend in the right direction with rainfall. The agronomy team has a lot of work ahead of them, but great improvement to the course were made in just three days. Mother Nature is on our side with shorter days, reduced angle of the sun, and longer periods of dew. We just need her to cooperate and provide some more frequent rainfall.
