Photos From Monday Afternoon Storm

An example of how much the bunkers washed out from the rainfall.
Cart path crossing between 12 and 13. This picture was taken about an hour after rain had stopped. I couldn't get to this area before due to the amount of water that was flowing over the top of the pipe and cartpath.
#10 fairway about an hour after rain had stopped
Water that is ankle deep on cart path by #13 tee just outside my shop. I have never seen it this deep since I have been here. The storm this afternoon dumped another 2.25" of rain. Bringing us to a total of 5.5" of rain since Sunday night.

Wow What a Storm

Well I guess Mother Nature decided that we weren't finished with the wet weather. Over the last couple of days we have received a little over 3.75" of rainfall. Needless to say course conditions are extremely wet and soggy. As I am sitting here typing we are in the midst of another strong thunderstorm that is forecasted to drop at least another 1.5" to 2" of rain. We have a busy week this week with the Missouri Four-Ball Championship suppose to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. My crew was able to get our this morning and mow greens, change cups, and start removing the silt out of the bunkers. Unfortunately with this latest storm we might be redoing some of the bunkers that we already completed. It is always a tough call on my part when to let the bunkers sit and wait and when to go out and take a chance and try to get them cleaned up. With the tournaments this week and all I felt like I didn't have a choice and needed to get all I could done when I could. Unfortunately I might have made a bad call this time. I hope to post some photos of the storm damage later today when it stops raining to where I can get my camera out. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Today we started checking sand depths in our bunkers to insure they have consistent depths all the way around them. One guy checks the depth of the sand and then tells the sandpro operator where he needs to push the sand too. The bunkers where then raked out and ready for play.

This is a photo of our walk behind aerator solid tinning the green surrounds. These areas take a beating throughout the year with all the foot traffic and equipment abuse. Aerifying them opens them up and breaks up the compaction which lets them breathe and take in water to survive the warmer days.

Summer Rain Shower

We got a much needed 1" rain overnight. The golf course had really started to dry out from the last couple of upper 90 degree days along with high winds. Golf course conditions today are once again a little bit on the soggy side. Carts are on the cart paths as the fairways are saturated from the rain. We were unable to mow fairways and approaches this morning and will hopefully be able to mow them on Tuesday if we don't get any more rain overnight like they are calling for. Today we are putting the bunkers back in place, mowing tees, mowing greens, and mowing some select holes of rough where the rough dries out faster then others. The temperatures look like they are going to be a little cooler then last week which will really help us out as we prepare for the big tournaments coming up here at the end of August and early September. Some items we will be working on over the week along with our weekly mowing shcedule will be spiking of the greens, topdressing the greens, trimming some tree limbs on #11 and #13, and finishing up spraying in the native areas.

Summer is Here For A Few Days

I guess we are finely going to have to put up with a little summer weather for once. Temperatures are suppose to be close to 100 degrees this weekend along with heat index values over 105 degrees. My staff and I will have our work cut out for us this weekend staying on top of the watering. As I have mentioned before the turf isn't used to these temperatures and it hasn't had a real good opportunity to harden itself off with the cool temperatures and timely rains we have been saving. You have to walk a fine line and make sure you don't over water as well as not watering enough. Over watering will cause you problems as well with disease development, scorching of the turf, and scalping issues when you mow. We were able to get all the rough mowed twice this week even with the rain day we had on Tuesday. We are currently putting the finishing touches on weed eating, edging, and trim mowing for the week getting ready for the weekend. I hope everyone has a great weekend and stays cool.

Another Rainy Day at Creekmoor

Well once again the weather threw us a curve ball this morning. So much for only a 20-30% chance of rain depending on which weather service you looked at. Anyway we received a little over an inch of rain and it has caused rather sloppy conditions around the golf course for today. Carts are on paths and we were unable to get any mowing done due to the wet conditions. We worked on getting the 65 sand bunkers back in order, mowed greens, and changed the hole locations. We were able to get 9 holes of bunkers repaired and plan on finishing the rest tomorrow. Hopefully on Wednesday we can get back on our regular mow schedule if things dry out the rest of the day today. This rain is going to make things rather interesting for us. A lot of moisture and then high temperatures right after are hard on turf grass and breed disease rather quickly. My staff and I are going to have to be extra cautious the rest of this week in monitoring turf conditions.

Well Summer is Here Today

I guess Ol' Mother Nature decided that we needed a little taste of summer this week finally. Temperatures are going to be in the upper 90's for the rest of the week. This will pose a challenge for my staff and I as the turf grass hasn't really been pushed this year and all the root structures are at the surface due to the amount of rainfall and cool temperatures we have been having. Every chance I have had I have been trying to harden off the turf a little and make it stress with water management, which will help it's roots to grow down towards the moisture and not stay at the surface. We were able to get all the bridges completely staind this morning. I have had some ask me about the bridge between #7 and #8 and the bumps. The bumps are there due to the cart path settling after construction. The only way to fix this permanetley is to rip out the concrete on each side fill it up and level it and then repour the concrete. I have tried to use a more economical approach and have installed some boards to help absorb the bump a little bit. As you can imagine the expense to fix this bridge and the amount of construction it would cause would be a big issue at this time of year. We will continue to monitor this area and the settling. I have installed several concrete sacks and poured some additional concrete around the bridges to help slow down the erosion and settlement. Thanks for the comments.