This past Monday the Turfcare team was able to complete a light topdress to greens. This program that is essential to providing smooth and true greens has been challenged by weather variables this spring. We are hopeful that the trend moving forward will allow this process to be completed more frequently so we can get ball roll where we would like. With the continued moisture consistency from day to day is still a challenge. We are also struggling to match the speed of the poa greens that remain on the property with the bentgrass greens. These greens vary significantly in age and composition. This makes consistency between these two styles of greens difficult when we do not control all variables.
The wet weather is also causing concerns with algae on greens. We utilize sand and other products to combat the algae both of which have been challenged to apply.
A reminder to please avoid walking with your rickshaw across collars. The excess traffic in these areas are creating turf health challenges. It is very evident on holes like 3 and 5. The collars are treated the same in these areas and the evidence of foot traffic is very visible where everyone walks.
Clipping management and overall details continue to be behind. We have areas that are receiving minimal mowing in this wet cycle we are in. Clippings do not disperse well when saturated. Overall there is great room for improvement on course presentation which will come as we hope to have some stretches of dry weather in the near future.
With all the standing water on the property we have begun to lose some turf. Turf sitting in water for repetitive days loses oxygen and begins to die back. We hope when these area finally to dry we will see some recovery but we will probably be looking at making some repairs when the wet cycle breaks. Compound cart traffic with this scenario and we would lose more turf.
Cart paths continue to be in poor condition. Many of these have deteriorated over the last four to five seasons with significant capital improvement items. The heavy equipment utilized during windows of time when paths are wet or holding frost has had a negative impact on them. For all those that use carts please keep in mind to slow down and travel through puddles on paths. The cart will be ok and the turf around the path that we continue to wear out to avoid water puddles will not. Much like gravel roads for those familiar when we dry out we can smooth the paths but it takes minimal rain or irrigation water to create pot holes again. The asphalt path systems installed around 9, 10 and 18 provide a much better member experience with minimal maintenance requirements other than a blow. They are not impacted by rain and do not require repetitive maintenance.
Here is to hoping for a stretch of dry weather for the game of golf and course care.