Course Update

 With the cooler temperatures we've been seeing the past week the course along with the maintenance staff has finally been able to catch their breath.  This summer will go down in the record books as the hottest summer since 1895 as well as the 15th wettest on record.  Couple that with the fact that we had two employees quit the 3rd of July without any notice and I was pulling out what little hair I have left.  My assistant Bob and our lone remaining employee, Luis, more than picked up the slack and I thank them for that.  We have since hired one replacement, Tyler who is our assistant superintendent's son.  He's done a great job so far and we are very happy to have him.  Needless to say it was a very difficult summer and we're not out of the woods yet but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Cooler nights and shorter days make a huge difference.  We completed greens aeration Monday, August 10th, followed by an 0-0-12 granular fert along with seed.  The greens have healed up very nicely and should be completely healed by early next week.  The 5th and 6th greens definitely took some bumps and bruises during July but have begun to bounce back after aeration.  We need to continue to work on the mat layer that has built up in these greens, this isn't due to anything we've done but rather how the sod comes from the farm.  Our plan going forward is to continue to dilute this thatch layer through verti-cutting, topdressing, core aerifying, and hopefully being able to borrow a sand inject graden.  All of these practices will improve turf quality and playability going forward.  Next on the horizon will be dryject aerification on greens September 28th and tee and fairway aerification in October.  We will also be putting a lot of hours on our triwave seeder, focusing on weak areas of greens, fairways, and the roughs.  As always please continue to replace all divots and fix all ball marks on greens.