Kind of messy last week with 6.39” of rain and mostly overcast skies. The additional rain topped off the lakes and this weeks sunshine has the course looking good and green.
Monday was our last closed day (except Christmas) until the middle of May. We used it to topdress and fertilize greens, topdress wet fairways, and spray tees/fairways while the contractor worked to finish up the fairway drain project.
We have been heavy topdressing fairways for two years. The sand lines in the sod that was cut around the fairway drains shows the topdressing is working. It also highlights the organic material (area between the sand lines) that is created naturally by the turf and thus the reason why we want to make heavy sand applications. If we didn’t topdress, the organics in the soil profile would build until the course eventually becomes one big sloppy mess. The topdressing firms up the soil and keeps the course from becoming so soft that carts create excessive ruts and balls frequently plug in the fairways. Good to see the process working.
The recharge well stopped working recently so we had it pulled and are waiting on a replacement. Even though all the records indicated it is a shallow well, I was hoping the well would be deeper. It appears to be about 25 feet and in the Surficial Aquifer. That means there is no hard rock layer between the water in the lake and the water in the ground, only sand. So a portion of what we pump is likely being drawn from our own lakes reducing the net gain of what the well produces. Projects like this do provide a better picture of our systems and every time we replace parts of the GE infrastructure we learn something from it.
I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!
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