Another Good Week

Once again, I'm amazed at the durability and he performance of our new greens.  We just experienced a significant 3 day stretch that pushes turf to the limit and the response was outstanding.  This past Monday through Wednesday we pushed about 95 degrees along with very high sustainable winds, drying things out quick.  The ability for our greens to withstand the heat, traffic, maintenance is remarkable.  Those three days could have sent the old greens in a downward spiral, especially with the way the spring has been.  As the performace of the greens continue to be positive we continue to try a little more.  This week we lowered our heights slighly again, did a second application of growth regulator, as well as put a soft roll on them Friday.  The cooler temps showed recovery but allowed us to carry out some of these tasks.  We'll continue to carry out our maintenance plans in accordance with the weather outlook.  This Monday our plans are to verticut, topdress, and fertilize all greens and approaches.  It's been awhile since we've verticut but they are do, especially with getting closer to the 4th of July when we can see things begin to get "puffy".  We will also be doing some spot aeification on the greens.  Areas that will be address are the areas on 1, 8, and 9 where large slope changes were done to the greens.  Reasoning for this aerification is to open those areas up but to also amend the soil.  When those areas were changed we lost our 4" sand cap that had been build over the years with topdressing, the aerificaton will help incorporate sand and give a better growing medium. 

Things continue to remain very dry so we are trying our best to keep up with the irrigation.  Hopefully this forecast holds true with rain Saturday night and throughout Sunday as it's desperately needed.  Areas with limited to no irrigation in the rough will soon be approaching their defense mechanism by going dormant "brown".  Dormancy is a protection done by the plant to prevent death, once things begin to cool down or we get some rain it will come back.  Amazing how different years can be.  2010, 2011 were very similar seasons where as 2012 is on the far opposite end of the spectrum. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the course and the time spent here at BCC.  Our crew is proud of the work we have done and will continue to address things to make the golf course better.  I'd like to share with you an article recently released by the USGA in the Greens Record: http://gsr.lib.msu.edu/article/bevard-self-6-22-12.pdf

Take a read, great information.