Week of June 5th
- matthewbehl
- Jun 10, 2023
- 3 min read
While this week may have not been the best for golf, it provided a nice break from hand watering and dragging hose. We have not received any measurable rain since Monday. Only a few light showers have occurred with most of the rain drifting just to our west. At least at this juncture we don't need the rain, but all these misses seem eerily familiar to last year's drought with only Gloucester being drier then Ipswich in all of New England.
Week started with a pre emergent application to greens. This is for poa and crabgrass control. I received some questions of why we were watering greens after the recent rainfall. This application needs to be watered in immediately and while wet we only had one outing on Monday with a 1:00 shotgun. This application was planned months in advance based on many factors including the golf schedule and had to take what the weather gave us.
Greens were also sprayed with fungicides and fertility this week. One of the products used is called Signature that contains a stressgard formulation which is made up of a green pigment. The stressgard formulation is something I really believe in especially as it pertains to winter. It also makes for an easy application to see your spray lines.
Greens were also vented with a 1/4 inch solid tine this week. This is help with gas exchange and infiltration. This process causes virtually no disruption to play.
Alex venting the 9th and 18th greens:
While focus was on the greens this week, we did do a variety of other work to the golf course on top of our daily maintenance.
Work included:
Insecticide and herbicide applied to step cut around greens
Green surrounds sprayed for clover and other broadleaf weeds
Clubhouse grounds and turf areas were all sprayed
Drains and fairway heads were edged on holes 1-6
Third hole rough was over seeded
Sand added to bunkers on 7 and 13
Tee yardage plate edging continued
Seeded an area on the 4th hole in the rough
Numerous stump holes were filled and seeded
We also repaired our well on 5 this week. This wasn't the most pleasant of projects, but glad it is completed and functioning properly if we need it.
Range Update:
The range tee was sodded this week along with additional rough sod to wrap the tee and the targets more. Luckily it wasn't 90 degrees when this sod was being placed. My assistant and I have had a number of irrigation challenges with the range. This has made for some very long hours at the end of our "normal" day as we do not want to take time away from golf course maintenance. I can't be more appreciative of the hours that my assistant Michael Curtin has put in on this project. My goal is to have the last repair done to the range this Saturday and have the wiring complete by the end of the day. Fingers crossed we are running irrigation on the tee and field on Sunday.
The range targets have received their first mow and have been rolled numerous times. The tee itself has been rolled numerous times as well and will receive it's first cut this week. The rest of the range floor will be seeded this week. I am just watching the weather to try to pick an ideal time to do the seeding. Some forecasts are calling for some heavy rain Tuesday. If that is the case we will be seeding later in the week.
Not many wildlife pictures were captured this week, but will close with a couple from the week.
