Splish Splash I Was Taking a Bath

I had to include a theme video and song for this post today.  Enjoy as you checkout the rest of the post below.



I was showering the 17th green this morning and had turned on some of the rough sprinklers under the trees to the left area short of the green.  A few puddles developed underneath the tree and our new juvenile
Red-tailed Hawk decided it was time to get his/her Saturday bath.

The Redtailed Hawk waiting for the sprinkler to make its way around again.

Standing up and ready to shake its tail feathers so to speak.

Greens update

What a great break in the weather. Still a few more tough weeks left in this record breaking summer but the trend seems to be improving.

We have been mowing greens
everyday this week and are beginning to roll 3-4 days with the mowing. This should improve the smoothness of the greens as well as ball roll out. We have also been able to topdress greens with sand which can improve smoothness and plant health.

Call your fellow members, bring your friends. It should be the best weather weekend in the last 60 days so come out and see us.

Joe Wachter
Sent from my LG phone

Goats at Presidio(SF)

Brain Nettz who is the Certified Superitendent at the Presidio in San Francisco and a peer of mine who I worked with at Palmer Golf has 300 goats taking care of exotic plant species at his golf course and the park in San Francisco.  See the story below.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/slideshow/Goats-in-Park-Presidio-47214.php

Lady(Sammy's Stars)

What a great production for our club yesterday regarding two hours of news coverage live from our club on the morning show.  The Pierson Plaza and flame looked awesome right before sunrise.

 Also, a glowing father has to show off his girl on 'Sammy's Stars'.  Jennifer Blome showed off Lady this morning as one of Sammy's Stars.  As we all know, she is definitely a STAR!

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/331522/68/Sammys-Stars--August-7

Greens update

This past week, I raised the mowing height another .005" of an inch to .130".  This second increase gives us a total of 7.3% increase for the season.  I do not expect to make another increase unless the health of the greens would begin to decline.  We do have 3 greens that are being mowed at a height of .140".  Holes 5,6 and 8 are three of the most vulnerable greens on property based on their lack of air movement.  In an effort to protect these greens from damage from the severe heat, I made the choice to give them just a little more protection.  I had been noticing some weakness in #6 and was concerned that if additional steps were not taken, severe turf loss could occur.   So, we made the change.  This mower is also being used as our circle or clean up cut that is performed on each green every other day.  Greens become soft and especially the edges become very vulnerable to scalping.

We will be doing some light topdressing over the next few weeks to help protect the crowns of the plants and reduce some of the scalping that occurs from greens being soft.  We will also be monitoring our water more closely in an effort to begin to firm the greens up as the heat stress becomes less severe.  We will also increase rolling which will improve ball roll and help to smooth our surfaces.

I would expect that speed will begin to improve as temperatures begin to moderate over the next couple of weeks.

Mottled Fairway Look, Localized Dry Spots, Fairy Ring and lack of rain

Our fairways have taken on a mottled look in various areas based on lack of rainfall and other factors over the past two months.  One of the biggest factors is a condition called Localized Dry Spots or LDS.  I've discussed LDS in the past.  Click on the link for an explanation of LDS.  Basically, its an area of soil or sand that repels water or does not accept water as readily as other spots in a nearby surrounding area.  The pictures below show the difficulty in managing this problem.  We've sprayed a soil penetrant on our fairways to improve the soils ability to absorb moisture

Other factors include fairy ring which leads to LDS, sodium or bicarbonate build up from our city irrigation water, and irrigation coverage.  Also, in an effort to keep our soaring water bill costs reduced as well as being environmentally responsible, water has not been applied in judicious amounts.  As temperatures begin to moderate and more normal rainfall occurs, I believe you will see improvements in the overall look of the fairways.  In the meantime, enjoy the long ball roll!

The probe was only able to pull out a two" deep  plug from the LDS spot on #10 fairway.  Only about 1" of the plug had a fair amount of moisture.

Just 6" away, the area to the right of the spot above,  the probe was able to penetrate 6" with moisture throughout the plug.

Weather You Want To Know or Not, July Stats!

Average High 98.6

Average Low  77.5

WARMEST JULY ON RECORD 88.1 DEGREES PREVIOUS 87.4 IN 1901

IN IST PLACE MOST NUMBER OF DAYS (8) WITH MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER THAN
OR EQUAL TO 105 DEGREES PREVIOUS OCCURRENCE WAS 7 DAYS IN 1934

IN 3RD PLACE MOST NUMBER OF DAYS (15) WITH MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER THAN
OR EQUAL TO 100 DEGREES

IN 3RD PLACE MOST NUMBER OF DAYS (22) WITH MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER THAN OR
EQUAL TO 95 DEGREES

TIED IN FIRST PLACE MOST NUMBER OF DAYS (28) WITH MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER
THAN OR EQUAL TO 90 DEGREES PREVIOUS OCCURRENCE WAS IN 1901 AND 1936

IN FIRST PLACE MOST NUMBER OF DAYS (2) WITH MINIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER THAN
OR EQUAL TO 85 DEGREES PREVIOUS WAS 1 DAY IN 2011 AND 1901

IN FIRST PLACE MOST NUMBER OF DAYS (11) WITH MINIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER THAN
OR EQUAL TO 80 DEGREES PREVIOUS WAS 9 DAYS IN 2011

IN 2ND PLACE MOST NUMBER OF DAY (21) WITH MINIMUM TEMPERATURE GREATER THAN
OR EQUAL TO 75 DEGREES  The two records above are some of the most difficult for turf managers.  If night temperatures stay down, greens can cool more which assists the turf with recovery.

8TH DRIEST JULY ON RECORD (Our weather station only received .52" of rain in July which would have made the 2nd driest July on record.

THERE WERE 8 RECORD HIGHS AND 7 RECORD HIGH MINIMUMS SET DURING THE MONTH.  THE
RECORD HIGH MINIMUM SET ON JULY 25TH TIES THE ALL TIME WARMEST MINIMUM EVER
RECORDED IN ST. LOUIS. THE PREVIOUS WAS SET ON JULY 24 IN 1901.

JULY 25TH ALSO GOES INTO THE RECORD BOOKS AS THE 2ND WARMEST AVERAGE DAILY
TEMPERATURE EVER. IN 1ST PLACE 97.5 DEGREES ON JULY 14 1954