Unfortunately the forecast was correct, more rain fell last night.
With another .75″ of rain last night, bringing the weekly amount to 1.65,” there is too much standing water to simply rope off.
Another round of thunderstorms should reach us around 9:00 am, then again by mid-afternoon.
Carts will not be allowed today, unfortunately.
Let’s hope we get lucky and the storms miss us, and the sun shines soon.
Thanks,
Mike Manthey
Thanks for the update Mike. As we winter in Arizona, the question has come up in my mind: how do they get away with aerating only once a year (in the summer months) in Arizona, when we seem to require twice a year here? Is there a simple answer to that?
thanks
Dick Fraser
Dick,
Good to chat with you yesterday for a minute.
It’s hard to compare apples to apples here since we’re talking about different turf varieties and growth habitats. However, it comes down to the percentage of organic material you want in your greens, which in turn, creates the playing conditions and health of the turf stand. Our greens are 98 years old, so that is the technology we are working with to provide conditions in 2017 expected standards. They are built out of clay with no internal drainage. We desperately need drainage in our climate more so than AZ. I would imagine that during the summer months in AZ, they can be very aggressive and take a much higher percentage of organic matter at once since play is very light, and the Bermuda is back and growing aggressively. Like I said yesterday, growing Bermuda also entails other cultural practices like aggressive verticutting and topdressing during the summer months to manage the organic matter. We don’t verticut at Midland because it promotes Poa, and we do everything we can to discourage it, especially because of winter survivability.
It’s a great question, but with so many variables from course to course, as well as environments, management practices and opportunities to do so, are too different for a simple answer.
Thanks,
Mike
Good question … Good answer! Thanks!