- \n
- We’ve applied 250 tons of sand to Greens, Tees, Surrounds, Approaches, and select Fairways<\/li>\n
- All Greens, Tees, Surrounds, Approaches, Driving Range\u00a0Tees, Target Greens\u00a0and Fairways (1-10) have been solid tined aerified<\/li>\n
- The sand on Tees, Surrounds, Approaches, and all Fairways except 10 and 15 have been dragged in<\/li>\n
- Sprinkler heads, drain inlets, and hose water valves have all been blown clear of sand<\/li>\n
- Soil\u00a0amendments have been applied to all Greens and Surrounds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
To get to this point has taken a massive amount of dirty\/dusty\u00a0labor, every piece of equipment we own, borrowing equipment from\u00a02 other local clubs, and two 16-hour days. I’m proud of my staff for working through some\u00a0very frustrating weather, and long hours.\u00a0There is nothing worse than planning everything to go off perfectly, but then\u00a0to be altered by weather, with no control.<\/p>\n
The weather I speak of is\u00a0rain. Around 1:00pm on Monday, we had a pop up thunderstorm drop .25″ of rain on the sand that was already put down on Greens and Tees. The sun came back out 2 hours later and we continued with our process until 9:30pm. At about 3:00am Tuesday morning, another .55″ fell on the sand. Then at 8:00am Tuesday morning, another .15″ of rain. At this point we’ve applied approximately 175 tons of sand and there is standing water in the\u00a0perennial wet\u00a0spots of fairways and roughs.\u00a0This left us\u00a0in a less than\u00a0ideal situation. So now we have to wait even longer for the sand to dry so we can properly drag it in. At 3:00pm on Tuesday, the sand on the Tees, Surrounds, Approaches and\u00a0all Fairways (except 10 and 15)\u00a0dried to the point to begin dragging in. This process\u00a0was completed by 9:00pm.<\/p>\n
This is what is not complete and\u00a0how it will impact golf:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- The sand\u00a0on the Greens is not yet completely\u00a0drug in.\u00a0Because of\u00a0how short the green’s turf is, air cannot get underneath it like it could the Tee and Fairway heights to dry. The sand on greens is also finer and\u00a0holds onto the moisture because of the lack of air space. Those two aspects have left the sand smeary and wet, preventing us from getting the sand down into the smaller sized holes we poked. We need the openings of the holes to dry before the sand can fall down into them<\/li>\n
- \u00a0The two pictures below show you what they look like as of Tuesday night. The sand is uniform but still sitting on the surface<\/li>\n
- Tonight and tomorrow’s forecast is for over another 2.5″ of rain, so golf tomorrow is unlikely<\/li>\n
- That same forecast will prevent us from again getting the sand worked into the profile of the greens, as well as finishing aerifying the fairways on 11-18<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
When will we get the sand drug in is the question everyone will want to know. The answer is simply – I don’t know. The weather has cooperated somewhat to let us get this far, just not all the way complete. We need the weather to allow the sand to completely dry for us to finish. Why did we aerify when we knew rain was in the forecast? Because the golf calendar and outside events are scheduled along side aerification during the winter months. We close the course for\u00a0two days and don’t want to close it for another two. We don’t operate under a dome, we work\u00a0and adapt with\u00a0the weather. We were not going to forgo aerification regardless of the forecast. Our agronomic practices are what keep our playing surfaces to the level that everyone has come accustomed to. I will chance the weather every time, and get as far into the process as possible. The short term pain is worth the long term gains we’ve seen over the past several years, as they are a result of our determination to make sure we take care of the golf course to promote survivability as well as playability. That’s my main responsibility to our membership.<\/p>\n
My blog title of\u00a0Mother Nature 1, Midland .75 was to state that we’ve accomplished a lot in the past\u00a02 days. We may have not won,\u00a0as winning would have\u00a0been to completely finish.\u00a0The greens are not ideal, but playable. When the sun comes back out for long enough to dry the sand, we will finish, and you will be happy, as will the turf.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mhccturf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/9-green-2-May-16-2017.jpg?resize=1251%2C560\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mhccturf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/9-green-May-16-2017.jpg?resize=916%2C687\")
<\/p>\nIf you have questions or comments, feel free to contact me at any time.<\/p>\n
Thanks for your patience and support.<\/p>\n
Mike Manthey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whenever aerification comes around, the weather seems to do the opposite of what we need it to do. Last year we had heavy frost before and after, this year\u00a0untimely\u00a0rain. Here’s a breakdown of what we accomplished as of\u00a0tonight and what you can expect when you tee it up\u00a0tomorrow, and the next few days: \u00a0 We’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001003,"featured_media":927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1,4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mhccturf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/4-green-May-15-2017.jpg?fit=1632%2C806&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4FBNE-eU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/4-green-May-15-2017.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":932,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions\/932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mhccturf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}