Tree

We lost the left side of the tree in the center of 9 fairway during the storm. We received 6 plus inches of rain as my rain gage only goes to 6 and it was full. I will have another update tommorrow after we begin cleaning up.
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Course Closing

To all the members

Golf course will be closed from 3pm Saturday until 730 Tuesday morning.
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Irene

We will be preparing for Irene today and Saturday on the golf course. We have already had both of our fuel tanks filled and have filled all the equipment with fuel. The chainsaws are ready and the blowers have been checked. I will pressure down the irrigation system and turn off the pumps over the weekend. The reason for this is in the event a tree falls it could damage an irrigation pipe in the process thus causing large amounts of water to leak onto the golf course. The flagsticks will be brought in on Saturday night to prevent them from flying away if we do receive high winds. Hopefully this is all for not but we will be prepared and will begin the clean-up as soon as Irene leaves the area.

The 8th green will partially be reopened on Saturday. The sod that is roped off should not be walked on for any reason. There will be two drop areas, one in the front and one in the rear of the green, that you are to use to avoid the sod. It will be a few weeks until we can play on the new sod so please be patient and respect the ropes so we can have a great putting surface for the fall season..

Course Update

The rain has stopped for the next few days and ushered in cool nights and mild days which is a great benefit to the course helping recovery on our problem greens and with the vandalism from Saturday night. The Fredco Group is soding the 8th green today repairing the damage from the vandalism. The 8th green will closed entirely on Tuesday with a temporary green in play for Wednesday thru Friday. We will re-evaluate the green for the weekend. Fredco will also be finishing the new nursery today so we should have some germination in the next two weeks. I have been continuing to aerate and seed the problem areas on the greens and collars trying to establish as much bentgrass as possible with the favorable weather. As we look for better practices to preserve our small collars we began using plastic lattice when we mow the greens. The lattice gives us an area to turn the mowers on without injuring the collars. The greens were topdressed yesterday to help fill in voids as well as routinely dilute our thatch layer in the greens.

Lattice being used to protect the collars

Damage

Last night we had vandals do damage to two greens, #3 and #8. #8 will be closed while repairs can be made.
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USGA August Update

By David A. Oatis, director, Northeast Region
August 18, 2011

Bentgrass thriving in a sea of dying Poa annua.

Depending on your location, your golf course may have experienced winter injury, torrential spring rains, a few weeks of mild weather, and then record-breaking July heat interspersed with a few more heavy rain events. Even August hasn’t been easy.  And let’s not forget the two to three generations of annual bluegrass weevils that have chewed their way through annual bluegrass populations and a little bentgrass at many courses this year.  Not surprisingly, plenty of golf courses have experienced problems as a result of the extreme weather conditions. 

Diagnostic laboratories have been overrun with disease samples, and outbreaks of summer patch and anthracnose both have been very common.  ‘Abiotic stress’ has been a common diagnosis, and in plenty of cases, annual bluegrass has just run out of gas.  As is usually the case this time of year, annual bluegrass is the species that is failing most often.  This is a good year to have more bentgrass!

Despite all of this, there are plenty of success stories.  Courses that installed drainage clearly are seeing the benefits this year.  The same goes for courses that improved their grass growing environments by tree removal and the installation of electric fans.  Some courses that have had good results with fans now are looking to install more or larger fans because of their obvious benefit.  Courses that implemented aggressive cultivation and soil modification programs on their greens also have benefited. 

With the renovation window upon us, a word of caution is appropriate.  Now is a terrific time to aerate and get seed into the ground in damaged areas, but do so with at least one eye on the weather.  Aerators can kick off more disease activity, and we are at great risk for damage from those high-sky, low-humidity days where turfgrass plants lose water through their leaves far faster than they can extract it from the soil with their weakened root systems.  We have already had a couple of those days, and we have the potential for more.  Just because it rained yesterday or last night does not mean that turf cannot wilt this afternoon.  Keep scouting for weevils, and beware of late August summer patch infections that might catch you unaware. 

As always, do not hesitate to give our office a call if we can help in any way.  Our visiting schedule still is busy, but we can always fit you in if there is a problem.

Rain

We recieved another 1.25 inches of rain last night.



Practice Green during Storm



Course Update

After recieving over 6 inches of rain this week we are finally getting caught up on all of our mowing. Greens, tees, collars, and approaches are all being mowed this morning with fairways, intermediate cut, and rough this afternoon. On Wednesday we were able to aerify the 5th green, and 1,2,3,4,6,9 collars with 1/4 inch tines on a 2x2 inch spacing. These areas were then seeded with bentgrass. It has been two weeks since we last aerfied and seeded the collars with some improvement resulting I will continue this process every two weeks into the fall. The rain gave me the opportunity to shut the irrigation system down completly so we could some leaks that were unable to be repaired while the system was pressurized. It also gave the Fredco Group the opportunity to install the new irrigation at the nursery. Fredco has removed the old material from the nursery and has set the grade for the new surface. 23 tons of a 70% sand, 20% peat moss, and 10% soil mix has been added to the nursery with another 20 tons still to go. Fredco will be finished on Monday with this project. The nursery will be seeded so it will take about four weeks before we will be able to make the first mowing weather permitting.

Removing the old material

Nursery

The Fredco Group is at MGC today to start construction on the new turf nursery behind 7 men's blue tee.

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Here is a video from Larry Stowell at PACE turf explaining how wind effects canopy temperatures of the turf. This is an important video to watch as we consider opeing up areas on the golf course around greens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWt6C3eoKiY&feature=player_detailpage

Rain

As of this morning we received over two inches of rain from last night. For the second time this week the bunkers took most of the damage. Here is a video repairing the front bunker on #2.

PGA Championship

If you were watching golf channel like I was last night you saw that there was mower damage done on the 17th green last night. Here is an update for the interested from Goldom:

The PGA just announced that there was damage to two greens. Previously it was mentioned that No. 17 had sustained damage, but only now has it become public that No. 14 green was also damaged.

I happened to be at No. 14 green when the damage happened, and I took these two photos. I was there when Ken Mangum arrived on the scene to survey the damage -- the expression on his face said it all. But he didn't scream and shout... he went into business mode, and looked to find a solution to the problem.

Now that the damage has been fixed, I hope the crew at Atlanta Athletic Club appreciates that I share these photos only so you can see what a good job they did when the broadcast starts tomorrow.

Shade

Here is a picture from this morning on the 6th green. Notice the shade on the rear portion of the green. It will be 2 more hours before it gets sunlight. This situation prolongs the turf being wet especially after a heavy rain like yesterday.
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Bunkers

This is the front bunker on #2 green this morning following yesterday's rain event. This is one example of how rocks are getting into our bunkers.
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No Carts

There will be no more carts for the rest of Tuesday August 9th.
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Collars

The break in the weather has given us an opportunity to renovate the collars on the greens. Last Saturday I brought my old boss Frank Tichenor over to MGC to have a look around and discuss what I thought my options were for the collars. After bouncing ideas off each other here is what we are doing. On Wednesday I fertilized the collars with a half pound of nitrogen from a 50 percent organic 50 percent synthetic granular fertilizer. We received a half inch of rain on Wednesday night which was perfect for the fertilizer. Today we began aerating, seeding, and rolling the collars. I used 1/4 inch hollow side eject tines on the aerator at 2 inch by 2 inch spacing. We shoveled the cores, spread Declaration bentgrass seed at 2 lbs per thousand, then rolled the collars. We completed all the greens except 6,7, and 8 which will completed on Friday. This process will need to be repeated a few times before we are successful in establishing more bentgrass in the collars. The continued success of the new bentgrass will be dependent on the removal of certain trees around greens as well as increasing the fertility and air movement in these areas. Thank you for your patience.

Core Aeration of Collars

Rolling Collars

Lightning

As many of you know we have a lightning detection system here at MGC. There will be frequent afternoon thunderstorms this time of year so I wanted to remind everyone that when the siren sounds make your way to the clubhouse immediately. While under a lightning delay the range nets and the putting green are still off limits. You can be struck anywhere outside so please stay inside the clubhouse or on the porch. Here is a reminder of what can happen if you do not follow these directions:

A 32-year-old Passaic man struck by lightning at Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook Monday evening had to be revived by emergency personnel on scene before he was taken to an area hospital in serious condition, officials said.

The man, who was not further identified, was struck by a bolt shortly before 6 p.m. during the fierce thunderstorm that pummeled the region with rain, bullet-sized hail and lightning.

He was taken to Monmouth Medical Center where he was listed in serious condition as late as 11:25 p.m., the spokesman, John Warren, said. His condition could not yet be determined today.

The man was in the beach area with his family when he was struck, Warren said. When his relatives found he had no pulse, they started CPR but were unable to revive him. Firefighters, park rangers and emergency personnel called to the scene, though, were able to jolt the man back to life with a defibrillator. He was then taken by ambulance to the medical center.

Venting/Spraying

Last night we received .35 inches of rain which left the greens very soft so I was able to vent #2,5,6, and 8, which are our most pocketed greens to help get some oxygen down to the roots. I also applied our plant protectants to greens, tees, and fairways. Next Monday all of the greens will be vented. As soon as we get some cooler weather I will be aerating the collars and seeding with Bentgrass as well as applying a granular fertilizer to the collars. The aeration will be shallow, just enough to give a spot for the Bentgrass seed to germinate and grow while the fertilizer will strengthen the remaining plants to help with all the wear that we are experiencing.