Slight Scalping in the intermediate fwy cut

As you are aware, we aerated our fairways and intermediate cut around the fairways this week.  The fairways cleaned up nicely and were completed by Wednesday afternoon.  Thanks to some of you who played through out work.  Our intermediate does not clean up quite as well due to the turf being 2 1/2 times longer than the fairway.  Today, we ran the drag over the intermediate to break up some remaining dirt and used our rotary mower that cuts around our greens and tees to cut the intermediate.  We lowered the height and off we went.  Normally, we use a reel mower like we cut our fairways and greens with but it is a very difficult mower to sharpen once dulled so I decided to use the other unit.  Being a rotary and since the rough was dragged with a metal mat and it stood up the turf, it scalped in a few areas.  The area below is the short fairway of #8 and the scalped area is a very fine bermuda grass that has been scalping slightly on the fairways.  The scalped areas will regenerate new leaves over the next few days and will be looking good again.

Our fairways are still drought stressed and are in need of a flushing rain.  Some spots on our fairways are very moist and have actually become muddy from over watering.  We are monitoring these areas closely and are changing our programs on a daily basis to increase the dry areas and decrease the wet areas.  I probably spend 45 minutes on irrigation changes each day.  The area most problematic for us has been the approach on #10.  I've actually turned off the left and middle row in this area in an effort to dry this area down.  I've also turned off heads nearby and then run them manually in the morning to insure that extra moisture is not moving into the already saturated area.

Looking toward 8 green.  Probably the worst spot on the course with the scalping.  It is a fine bladed bermuda that has actually been scalping out in the fairway.  This time of year it is growing out of control.  Scalping occurs when grass plant lengthens excessively and there are less leaves exposed after it is cut.  This gives the washed out look.  The intermediate cut scalped from the dragging and the rotary unit was mowed a little tighter than the regular reel unit.