Spraying Greens Today

Its another busy Monday and its time to spray the greens again.  We always attempt to complete this task on Mondays when the golf course is closed.  The weather is beautiful this morning with clear blue skies and a temperature of 76 degrees at 10:00 AM.  The golf course received a few rain showers over the weekend, the biggest was early Saturday morning giving us almost a half inch.

OB stakes moved on hole #13

The white out of bounds stakes have been moved on the left side of hole #13.  There are also white indicator marks painted on the sides of the road to designate where the line start and ends.

New Feature on Blog

Following along with the Kenmure Maintenance Blog is now easier than ever.  Just submit your email address using the box on the top right of the blog.  You will recieve an email alert whenever there is new content added to the blog.

Using this feature you can stay informed and know when new content has been added to the blog.

Thanks and have a great day.

Josh Laughridge
Golf Course Superintendent

August 16, 2011 - Course Maintenance Update

The high temperatures of late July and early August seem to be over.  The daytime temperatures are back in the lower 80's and the night time temperatures have been falling below 60 degrees.  This is a much more favorable climate for our golf course and will help us begin to heal the damage to the fairways.  This weather will also allow us to return to normal cart path rules which I am sure everyone will be happy about.

In the coming weeks we will be seeding areas of some fariways that lost turf.  We will attempt to keep the seeding isolated to certain holes as we will need to close these holes to cart traffic during the seeding process.  The preperation and seeding of number 16 fairway will be taking place first.  That hole will remain closed to cart traffic.  The fairways with only small spots of damage will not need to close completely as we can manage traffic with signs.

The overall health of the golf course is very good and the greens, tees, and most fairways are in great shape.  The golf course is pretty wet still today.  This weekend we recieved 2.2 inches of rainfall spread across a couple days.  I walked in many fairways this morning and it was just too wet to allow much traffic although I did allow flags.  I hope to return the traffic to the fairways as soon as possible.

We are very hopeful that this cooling trend will stay in place for a while to allow us some time to do some seeding and spray some much need chemical applications for weed control.  Fall is just around the corner and with Fall comes another surge in bentgrass root growth. I expect that by the time the leaves are begining to turn colors few scars will be left behind to remind us of a hot and difficult summer.

Etiquette Reminder

Please replace all divots please.

A large and wet divot like the one in the picture above will easily continue to grow if it is put back into the ground.  If you cannot find the original hole it came out of then just place it into another divot hole.  You can place some sand around the edges if you like, but most larger divots may not require much or any sand.

The sand bottles on your golf carts can be used to fill the holes of divots that have been too shredded to be replaced or have dried out and died.

Thank you for your help.

Horticulture Corner

I thought I may add a section to the blog and talk about the different plants and flowers that we have on the golf course and around the clubhouse. I will continue to add new plants as time allows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudbeckia_hirta

One of my favorite perrenial flowers has always been the black-eyed susan. These flowers return in clumps every year and always have great color.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelia_x_grandiflora

The glossy abelia hedges that we have around the clubhouse and the first teeing areas are always magnificient and very healthy growers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandevilla

The Mandevilla is a tropical plant that orignated in the jungles of Rio De Janiero, Brazil. We use this plant on the patio area as it likes to grasp onto the railings and spread out like a vine.



Irrigation Blowouts

You never know when a pipe is going to explode out of the ground. It seems to like to happen on weekend afternoons when no one is at work.