Course Update 8.26.13

It has been a very busy two weeks since my last post. I will use today's post to focus primarily on two important topics: 1) Greens and 2) Drought Conditions.

Greens

We completed our 6th Planet Air/Aeration procedure of they year on Monday the 19th. The operation went smooth and the greens have almost completely recovered. This process is essential to maintaining healthy greens (especially roots), and your patience during cultivation practices is greatly appreciated. Our next aeration event is scheduled for September the 23rd, and will probably involve core aeration in conjunction with the Planet Air.

It has been a long hot summer, however we are finally over the hump when it comes to managing bentgrass greens in the Texas heat. As I have mentioned before, roots are the key to surviving the summer. Notice the difference in root depth on the 7th green in the pictures above from June 16th (left) and August 23rd (right). Over the next six weeks we will begin to see declining high temperatures and shorter days. These climatic factors promote several beneficial physiological processes in the plant resulting in: improved root depth, increased recovery time, and better stress tolerance.

So what does all this mean for playing conditions? While we still have several hot days ahead, we are now looking forward to transitioning our maintenance programs from summer (survival) to fall (recovery and performance). With a stronger plant we can focus more on improving ball roll, speed, and firmness without jeopardizing turf health.

Finally, we will soon begin repairing any damaged areas on greens (such as the front of the putting green) and removing bermuda grass contamination from the greens. In order to accomplish these tasks we must first establish a nursery. We currently have plans to construct a new nursery to the right of 18 Tee.


Prosed Nursery Green Location

Drought Conditions

While some parts of town have been fortunate to catch isolated rainfall, it has been almost 6 weeks since we have received any measurable precipitation at RCC. The lake is almost 7ft low, and the majority of Mclennan County is in the "Extreme" drought category according to the U.S. Drought Monitor on 8/20/13 (see below).

Fortunately we have been able to stay within our water budget so far this year, by focusing the majority of our irrigation on tees, fairways, greens, and other areas that are considered "in-play". Our irrigation system is very good, however it is designed to supplement rainfall - not replace it. The end result during extended drought conditions is a combination of wet and dry areas throughout the course. We are working hard to minimize these conditions by adjusting sprinklers, completing repairs, hand watering, and re-programming our central computer.

Click the link below to learn more about irrigation systems and drought conditions:

http://gsr.lib.msu.edu/article/moore-why-6-24-11.pdf

We are also working on long term plans to improve our overall water use. A few the items that we are currently discussing include: addition of ET based weather station on site, upgrades to our controllers and central computer, reducing our irrigated acreage (in conjunction with a master plan from John Colligan Design), and incorporation of satellite and GPS mapping tools. All of these improvements will be discussed in further detail later, and will be incorporated into our drought conservation plan. In the meantime we will continue to closely monitor our irrigation usage and continue to focus on high priority areas.

As I mentioned above, the lake is almost 7ft low. This means that we must rely completely on our transfer pump setup as seen in the picture below. The result is that the amount of water that we can apply at one time is reduced by about 30%. We can still apply enough water for irrigation, however it takes longer to irrigate the entire course. As a result, we are forced to complete some irrigation during daytime hours. Please understand that we will keep irrigation from disrupting play as much as possible.

With the lake 7ft low, our intake line to the irrigation system is exposed.