Our Putting Surfaces have endured a tough Summer and an equally damaging end to the Hurricane Season. The goal is to be Perfect, Playable and Pretty. We are Playable and my team is determined to reach Perfect and Pretty.
Let’s dive into some of the root causes of where we are currently. My ambition and aggressiveness to provide Perfection this season backfired a bit due to the excessive rain after our July closure. The cultural practices employed to achieve this end involves Vert cutting, topdressing and growth regulators. Our new “Potato Chip” greens served as quite a challenge due to the high ridges and low valleys throughout. Thinning the canopy and reducing the thatch is the correct course of action for performance. The extended wet, cloudy weather provided little to no recovery assistance.
Once the weather gave us a break, we utilized our Nursery Green to patch and repair any weak area heading into season. All was growing, healing and ready for tournament golf in mid to late September. Thean we had back to back Hurricanes. Helene was survivable, Milton was, and is a major thorn in our side. As stated in my previous post, the lack of flushing rains following the on shore winds was devasting. The short rooted repair areas were deprived of proper irrigation for close to three weeks. Up until 2 days ago, we were still dealing with intermittent power outages. When the power goes down for even a minute, our irrigation system shuts down. This is the reason you are seeing our team pull hoses around the greens to ensure proper moisture.
Let’s talk recovery. We will still maintain the effort for optimum playability through the end of this week. We have one more guest event on Thursday, the Niner’s Invitational. Following this tournament we will re-sod these areas, pinpoint any special irrigation needs and continue to upgrade our fertility programs.
It has been a difficult start to the Season. The feed back from the Men’s Invitational and the Women’s Member Guest were very positive. By no means does that satisfy me, or my team. My goal is to get the course to a point of integrity where we can manipulate the performance as we maintain the aesthetics.
Thank you for your support. Stay Classy Stonebridge and rest assured we will prevail.
