Thank you for visiting our turf maintenance blog. Check out the links and posts below for information on upcoming projects, current maintenance work, and much more.
Roxy and Ruby check out the rising lake water near #1 Green.
I started my last post by talking about "Crazy Weather". I will continue that same them this month as 2015 will surely definitely going down in the record books as a year of extremes. RCC only received one inch of precipitation for all of July, August, September, and most of October. However, the dry pattern quickly changed with the aftermath of Hurricane Patricia and the long awaited impact of El Nino. Over the weekend of October 23rd we received 13.5 inches. This was followed by another 5.5 inches over Halloween. So far this week we have received another inch with more in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. The above events add up to nearly 20 inches in the last 14 days! Check out the video below showing the enormous amount of water coming from the across the 18th fairway and running accross the road leading to the Marina and Maintenance Facility. The crew was actually stuck at the shop until the water receded.
The below video shows what happens on #9 during heavy rains. Alex Johnson one of our Assistant Golf Professionals took this video earlier this year. The same scenario has taken place more than once so far this October.
The positive side of all the rain is that the entire course has shown significant drought recovery, and we are now in much better shape to enter the winter months. The downside is that we have had quite a mess on the course the last couple of weeks, several newly planted areas have washed, bunkers have been worked and re-worked several times, and we are now concerned with flooding once again. Overall the course has fared well but there has certainly been a lot of work to do. Check out the list and photos below to see some of the damage from the rain and other course happenings.
#1 Green - This green was re-planted just over seven weeks ago as a result of flood damage received in June. The green has been doing great and we are hoping to open sometime in the next few weeks. Fortunately, the flooding has reached the green yet. We came close last week when the lake hit 468ft or only 2ft away from the green. More information on #1 Green can be found HERE
#1 Green on 9.15
#1 Green on 9.25
#1 Green on 11.4
Greens- The rest of the greens are doing great thanks to fall temperatures finally coming to central Texas. The constant wet weather has certainly increased disease pressure, however the cool temperatures and occasional dry air has resulted in overall recovery from the summer heat. We are planning to sod the weak areas on 4,6, and 9 as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the rain has washed out our newly planted nursery greens twice and we have been forced to use the practice chipping green as a temporary nursery. We are hoping to purchase a small amount of sod late next week to complete repairs to these areas. Our nursery greens should be ready for use by next spring.
Crewmember Jacob Heppell planting one of our nursery greens prior to all the rain.
Water near the 18th tee and one of our new newly seeded nurseries (back).
Fall Plantings- The rain certainly caused a mess on several areas of the course. Prior to the rain we had completed overseeding of all practice tees and target greens. In addition, we were about 70% complete on planting several areas to tall fescue. Fortunately we were able to finish our fall flower change out and complete our preventative weed applications before the rain started. Most of the seeded areas are still doing great, however many will need to be reseeded thanks to flooding and erosion.
The crew decided to plant the Ridgewood "R" as part of our fall flower change out.
Overseed on main driving range tee and target green. The rain has made it difficult to prepare the grass for play.
Erosion control mats helped minimize the damage but, the newly seeded area on 13 required reseeding two times already.
Bunkers- We have spent quite a bit of time on the course over the last couple of weeks working to repair bunkers from the constant rains. Fortunately, the drainage and liner system in the bunkers is working as designed and we have not had major damage to any bunker. Most of our efforts have gone into shoveling sand back onto the faces, checking bunker depths, leveling, removing debris and defining edges. The entire crew has done a great job completing these task repeatedly over the last couple of weeks.
Bunkers near the 10th green after one of the rain events
Bunkers to the right of the 12th green.
Damage and Cleanup- In addition to repairing bunkers, we have been busy working to clean up debris and mud resulting from erosion.
Water coming across the 18th fairway. The water is over 10ft deep in places.
Water running across the back 9.
Large amounts of silt deposited near the 11th green. It is still to wet to complete clean up in this area.
Erosion on #11 coming from Lake Shore Dr and surrounding area.
Duane Kemp uses the backhoe to unplug a stopped drain.
Debris and silt near the approach on #9
Erosion control helped keep a large amount of mud off of 10 fairway
