Hello Fall!

I wanted to take a few minutes to update the membership on the last couple of weeks here in Golf Maintenance.  The week of the 19^th it seemed like it rained every day.  We ended up with close to 6.5 inches of rain.  Compared to a lot of other courses in Hampton Roads it was barely a sprinkle.  Some golf courses in the Virginia Beach and Chesapeake area took 12-15 inches!!  Those courses were closed multiple days and one still has not completely opened back up.  The rain here filled the lakes back up and brought our month long drought to an end.  On the down side we went 7 days without mowing anything except greens.  When we finally got back out on Monday we bailed hay everywhere.  The pictures show what it looked like before the turbine blowers came through to clean up.  This week we have dodged the rain and are back on a regular mowing program.  The course looks great after being cut a couple of times.  We skipped edging bunkers last week but they now have a razor sharp edge on them.

We did miss two days on greens mowing last week which allowed the plants to get tall and fat when added to all of the rain.  We double cut them on Thursday and Friday of last week and have mowed them every day since.  This week we lowered the height on the mowers and changed out the front roller to a more aggressive style so we can get rid of all of the fat plants.  Consequently greens are rolling great again and getting back to our normal speeds.  Hopefully fall will arrive soon with some cooler nighttime temperatures and pleasant afternoons!