7-22-18

We appear to be on a record stretch of sunshine and beautiful golf weather.  It has been one of the most difficult golf seasons I have been a part of in 24 years at the muni.  We have definitely put the last fiscal period behind us and are moving forward to have a great second half to the 2018 golf season.  So far so good.

The wet and windy weather has made it nearly impossible to spray our broadleaf weeds or apply our fertilizer applications to the fairways and rough.  With the beautiful weather upcoming, I will be focused on spraying the entire golf course for clover and broadleaf weeds.  I will also apply a granular fertilizer application to the fairways and tees.

There was no spring fairway fertilizer application applied, due to the extreme weather conditions.  If there is a heavy rainfall, after the application goes down, the odds are the pellets will all wash to low areas or even end up in our water features.  The fairway turf is definitely deprived of nutrients and you can see the signs of dollar spot appearing.  The one positive from all this, we will save about $4000 from missing the spring fertilizer application.

Our broadleaf weeds were controlled last fall, so there is not a lot of weed presence on the course.  The most prominent weed is the clover on the south end of the golf course.  Clover generally takes a couple of treatments to really get it under control.  I plan to spray these areas this coming week.

We started hand topdressing 17 green and some of the other damaged areas on other greens and surrounds.  This has helped the grass recover slowly.  The topdressing helps the bentgrass grow horizontally into the bare areas.  I have seen a lot of improvement in the 17th green.  These areas will be overseeded next month followed by routine topdressing.  We will also be aerifying all of the greens on the course.

Lastly, I’m still researching golf simulators to ensure we get the best product for our situation.  There are lots of side by side comparisons on Youtube that help answer many questions.  I plan on having a product chosen prior to the next golf board meeting.  I’m excited to add this feature to our facility.