Weekly roundup

Here are a few topics of interest this week:

So far in 2019 we are 2.5” of rain under last year’s pace, which was a record, and 1” under average through June. June itself was dry though, nearly 2” under normal. Evidence of this can be seen in the deep, non-irrigated rough and under trees. The tree roots out-compete the turf, and the grass goes dormant and turns brown. Nevertheless, being that close to last year’s record rainfall means that there are still lots of hurdles to cross from now until the end of the year.

The aforementioned rainfall- mostly afternoon thunderstorms- plus heat and humidity, contribute to the highest levels of stress for the turf. It is the time of year when we must play defense against Mother Nature. Throw in the associated diseases and insects and the table is set for the toughest stretch of the year. Therefore, we try and give the grass, especially the greens, as much help as possible to combat the elements. So, we will be raising the mowing height on greens this week, probably thru the next month, right into aeration. We have been mowing the greens at .115” and we will be raising them to .125”. Raising the height by one hundredth of an inch may seem minuscule, but not to the turf. This is nearly a 9 percent increase in leaf tissue. For turfgrass, more leaf tissue means more food production and more roots, which leads to healthier plants. We will employ other strategies to maintain speeds. Overall though, our goal is to have healthy grass remaining at the end of the year, not the fastest greens possible in July.

Divot on #8 green. At least they tried to
replace the chunks.

There also was a divot taken on #8 green recently. Unfortunately, this was the 4^th divot taken on a green so far this year. Though we usually don’t even make a mention of them, we just repair it and keep going, and most golfers probably never know it happens, we felt this was a good time to at least let people know that it is occurring. While we are nearly certain that the readers of this blog are not the likely culprit, we still hope to get the message out. We take great pride in the entire golf course, as do our members, especially the greens. We also spend a great deal of time, effort and money to make sure the greens are as good as possible and taking a chunk out of the green undermines that effort. Not to mention that the divot was taken near the cup, so players behind this person would have possibly had to contend with a divot in the line of their putt.

Broken flagstick on #16 green

Speaking of frustration- someone also snapped a flag stick in half last week. Again, most golfers were never aware, because we discovered it (though no one told us they had done it) and we were able to replace it with a new stick before more than a couple of groups played through. 

Tree work has been paused due to the rain. While we were drier than normal in June, two storms- the first bringing 1.25” and the second .75”- still deterred us from taking heavy equipment on the course. We will be back on track as soon as possible to clean up the logs remaining and continue the previously discussed trimming and removals.

Thank you

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please remember to keep your cart on the cart path when we are “Cart Path Only.”

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Bunker etiquette

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org