Golf Course
Last weeks maintenance went really well and we are happy to have the course back open this week. Greens are a little slow and the course still has a few areas to heal. Our focus now will be concentrated on tightening up the details as we head into the season. Thanks for the patience and time that is given each summer to perform the maintenance that is crucial to keeping our course in top shape year around.
The big event this week was 1.5” or rain on Tuesday. Now normally an inch and a half of rain this time of year wouldn’t be an event but with the strange weather pattern this summer it certainly is and as you can see from these pictures, the course liked having a fresh drink of water.
Mornings on the golf course are the best!
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As good as the course looks now, the reality is we are still in a serious drought.
It had been 13 days since our last rainfall and we are currently 25.58” behind the average rainfall for 2021 & 2022 YTD. Both are extremely rare occurrences for summer in SW FL and at this point I am very doubtful our lakes will be full this year.
So, what impacts does that have on our course? There are many but the top two are salt buildup in the soil, reducing our normal summertime vigor/growth and the potential for running out of irrigation water during the dry season ahead.
Irrigating thru the summer without the cleansing of natural rainfall allows salts to build in the soil. So instead of the turf drinking spring water, it is choking down salt water. This doesn’t kill the grass but does keep is from peak health and vigor. The result can be lower turf canopy density going into our heavy play season.
Even more concerning to me are the levels of the lakes. They are low, I mean really low, like what we normally see in February low. In normal years, we see periods where we are in danger of running out of irrigation water and thats when we start with full lakes.
I am not trying to be all doom and gloom here or the boy who cried wolf. I actually hope I am worrying for nothing, but the lack of rainfall this summer is unlike anything I have every seen. Remember, I grew up in this area so that goes back a few years 😂. Unless things change, I along with many in our business expect the South Florida Water Management District to place restrictions watering and understand the challenges that we may be up against in the upcoming season ahead of time I hope helps expectations when and if they or we have to reduce irrigation applications.
It’s not that we would have to close the course or anything, but we may have to put up with substantial dry and brown turf, something we are not accustomed to seeing.
Well enough of that negative talk, for now I am enjoying the benefits of the rain we did receive and so is the course. Here are some pictures since the rain on Monday.
In our line of work, we often have to think outside the box Such was the case this week. We planted new Copperleaf behind the #1 tee on hole number 4. They had been damaged by Hurricane Ian last year. When we replaced them we found out that the rabbits love them, atleast until they get high enough to keep them from eating all the new leaves. So we had to put up a physical barrier to keep the rabbits off of them long enough for them to survive.
Just didn’t want anyone to think we took up raising chickens 😂
With all the excitement from the rain and getting the course back open I did a bad job of capturing pictures from Common Grounds and Facilities this week.
I can tell you the restaurant and grill room did have the carpets cleaned this week and other areas of the club will be done over the next several weeks.
More from Common Grounds and Facilities next week.
I look forward to seeing everyone on the course or in the facilities, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf and facilities too!
