The Rain Returns

After a little over a week of dry weather, the rains have returned.....at least for today anyway.  At the moment, you cannot see the Great Lakes, or Michigan for that matter on the radar screen, and it looks like we are in for a good day of soft slow rain. 

The rain was actually a welcome sight this morning.  Not only did we have a brief period of drying weather (which was a good thing....see below), but we had the misfortune of being forced to shut down our irrigation system last week.  For a little while now, we have witnessed a slow leak occurring in the fescue between 14 tee and 16 green.  Last Wednesday, I had Bryan start digging in to see what we had in store for us, and unfortunately what was found, was the main line.  So this is what we saw....

 

So this is a 6x6x4 inch tee.  As you can begin to see by the bottom of the pipe in the photo, there was quite the bend in the line.  Not only was there a lot of pressure on this junction from not being square, but the thrust block (which is poured concrete), was not nearly sufficient enough to prevent this line from moving.  So to make a long story short, this issue ate up all day Thursday and Friday of our time.  During this time, the system was shut down, as there is no way to isolate the main line being so close to the pump house.  Even once we were finished with the repair on Friday, we were still not able to fire up the system once again, as we had to wait for the concrete thrust block to cure and be able to properly do its job.  

This issue forced the golf course to dry out, significantly more than we have been used to in 2011....which as I mentioned is not a bad thing.  For the first time in a long while, the turf was forced to go searching for water in the soil.  This should in turn force the roots down into the soil profile, which is a nice bonus as we head into the winter months.

However, the only down fall to it being so dry, and not having the ability to water, was we did see some wilting turf.  I am not concerned at all with areas such as 11 and 16 fairway being dry; it can be very beneficial to stress bentgrass to its limits like this.  However, the new sod laid at 7 and 11 certainly could have used some more water than what we were able to provide it with.  Again, this will not be a problem in the long haul, and today's rain will bring it back to life in no time.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, our dollar spot issue in the fairways is continuing to persist.  At this moment, 1, 3 and 7 fairways have the most activity.  Again, we are nearing the end of dollar spot season, and it is really not feasible to make another application when Mother Nature will take care of this for us. Yes, it is not the most aesthetically pleasing sight to see, and believe me, I am frustrated by it more than anybody, but I do not have any fear of any damage being done to the turf. 

And finally today, I just wanted to send out a friendly reminder that we continue to ask all players to stay out of the freshly mowed fescue. We have not quite finished with our fall maintenance of the fescue, as we hope to get a dry and clean cut on it prior to our herbicide treatments, and we appreciate your cooperation with this matter.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me at jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

Stay dry!

Jamie