Hydrate or die?!?

It has certainly gotten hot in a hurry this year!  After a wet/cool start to the season mother nature didn't want us to get spoiled so she threw the hottest temp we've seen in 3 summers yesterday.  We topped out at 93 on our weather station.  For those of you from other areas of the country, don't judge, it's not 100+ but when you're nearly a mile and quarter closer to the sun it feels pretty darn hot!!!

As you know we are celebrating our 50th Anniversary of golf here at JHGTC and with 50 years of traffic, snow cover, poor soils, etc. it starts getting tough to get moisture into the soil and keep it there when we get this hot.  We are working extremely hard to obtain that balance of just enough moisture to keep the turf alive and little enough to play firm and fast.  That being said there will be a few wet areas out there, especially early in the morning, seemingly right next to dry areas..thus the nature of our soils.  We have been training up the staff on hand watering techniques and are spending a lot time hand watering greens in order to keep them firm.

A couple of project notes: we aerified tees this last week, rented a 51" drum roller and rolled some select tees.  This, in addition to some sand topdressing will aid in leveling and maintaining flat surfaces over time.  Towards the middle of July we will be fixing all the road crossings where we removed cattle guards last year.  The willows have started to grow up in the river bottom on #11 and we will begin cutting those back before long to open up the view and landing area that is getting difficult to see from the blue and white tees. Other than that we are into our normal maintenance schedule and it looks like it's getting busy..finally.  I hope everyone has a great week and upcoming 4th of July weekend.

Momma and twins at the condos near #9 tee area.  Have taken up residence on the golf course this year.  Keep an eye out around ponds and heavily treed areas.

  

Finally feeling like summer!

It looks like we're out of the monsoon type weather pattern, at lease for a while.  Temperatures are warming up and things are really growing out on the course.  The greens are in great shape and the fairways are starting to firm up and getting some good roll out.  We've been spending a lot of time detailing the bunkers and they are playing really well. If you have been out to play you've noticed that we are experimenting with a new style of raking called "Aussie Style".  We are using the back side of the rakes and laying a smooth surface in the bottoms of the bunkers which has aided in firming them up and making the playability more consistent from day to day.  You can actually advance your shots out of the deep fairway bunkers instead of just trying to get out.  We've have some really good feed back from members and guests alike.  The next step is to fashion an attachment for the mechanical rake to mimic the same playing surface.

We will be working on tee boxes next week trying flatten some of the more severely "humped" ones by aerifying with large hollow tines, watering heavily and rolling them out. We hope to gain teeing area on several holes like #13 blue and white tees.  Excited about that project!

We also made it through the annual Lucas cattle drive successfully with no cows making it on the course.  I hope everyone is enjoying the course, it truly is in great shape and will only continue to get better.  We have a new critter calling #11 home..see below.  Have a great week!!

Badger on #11

 

Cattle Drive 2015

Sunrise 6/16/15