This has been a very strange year to say the least. Lack of snowfall over the winter left the turf exposed and caused damage to the poa on 15, 9 and the putting green. These areas are healing well, but not as fast as some would expect. We had a choice to leave these greens open and continue play or close them and create a temporary green. The choice we made was to leave them open witch has caused a delay in how fast they are able to heal with active play on them daily. Please continue to be patient while the greens heal in.
A cool damp April didn't do us any favors as far as warming up the soil. We see significant green up and growth when soil temperatures reach the 60 degree range. Although air temperatures are warm it does not always translate to soil temperatures rising quickly. Our last light frost was Friday, May 26th. Even though day time temps can get in the 80's or even 90's if you cool into the 30's or 40's in the evening you effectively lose any rise in temperature that we gained in the soils.
May saw only .5-.9 inches of rain (we recorded a 1/2 inch, the airport recorder 9/10). Although we do have an irrigation system, it does have its limits, we do not have wall to wall irrigation across the course. We have a double row system on fairways and tees. This means that between the sprinklers on the left and the sprinklers on the right side on any given hole are getting adequate moisture to survive. Outside those sprinklers towards the rough is getting 1/2 the water that it needs or that the fairway is receiving. This is why you tend to see the edges of any area browning out. To get the outer edges more water would cause the in play areas of the fairways to be oversaturated which can lead to soft conditions, rutting from equipment and carts, and disease to the plants.
The following are the irrigation totals in gallons for the last few years in May:
2023- 3,000,000
2022- 1,270,000
2021- 2,000,000
2020- 1,100,000
2019- 300,000
2018- 900,000
June 1-today we have ran a total 1,318,678 gallons. High temps last week didn't help either. We made it through and are catching up on some water with a few cloudy days. Its sad, but we are at the point where we will take a cloudy day to catch up and make a positive move forward with water.
Thank goodness for the wells, because we would not have enough water from the creek.With the extra water that we are using, the bunkers will be a lot firmer due to nightly irrigation. Bottom line is we need some rain to help us out a little bit.
We do appreciate your understanding that our crew is doing just about all it can to keep up with this dry pattern and hope that you understand that we will not be wall to wall "green".
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