#17 Green

(This is a current picture of the 17th green on Sept 17th. It is amazing what a few well timed fertilizer applications and cooler weather will do for bent grass. It almost makes me look smart. There was a lot of plugs and sod added too.)

(Picture taken 17 days later)

The green on Hole #17 looks awful and I want to apologize for it appearance. I believe we had a couple of issues working against us:

1. We finished the topdressing/aerification in the rain on the Tuesday of last week. In doing so the sand was wet and did not “fall” into the holes, instead it matted, smeared and bruised the greens. The edges look worse because the week prior they were punched, sanded and brushed, so this second round caused even more damage.
2. Dealing with the wet sand we had a few spots accumulate a thicker layer of sand, which caused the turf underneath to not receive any sunlight (think about a tee box when the tee marker is not moved) for a day or two.
3. The crew sent to disperse this layering used brooms instead of blowers (this is my fault for lack of communication/follow up) and therefore smeared wet sand into the canopy. In turn defoliating any viable turf left in theses spots
4. The weather had also returned to normal August “heat and humidity” for the last 7-10 days. We have had many days with upwards of 70% humidity and little to no sun. The bentgrass has not had the ability to use the sunshine to produce the necessary energy (chlorophyll) to grow out of the damage.

The good news is that we have increased our fertilizer inputs, started plugging out bad spots, have some 70/50 degree days and nights with sunshine in the short term forecast. It already looks better today than it did on Monday. It sickens me to have to write another email dealing with greens issues and I can promise we will get this back on track.   

Please feel free to contact me at anytime and share with the membership.