Mink Meadows Turf Maintenance Department: Thunder and lightning

In the last post I discussed the potential relief from a nice gentle rain (.03") which we received last Thursday and Friday. Between this and the heavy watering we gave the place with town water we hopefully flushed some of the salts we were adding with our well water. This morning Mother Nature gave us a little more rain. We had a a thunder and lightning show to rival the OB fireworks in August. We also received 1.25" of rain in 30 minutes. This rain is useless unless you are trying to fill up a pond. It does more harm than good by washing out the roads, cart paths, and bunkers. It settles into the low areas and compacts the soil where it sits in puddles. We were fortunate not to suffer any damage from the lightning to either the irrigation system, pump house or any trees. Although there are a few trees that if destroyed by a storm would cause many of you to cheer and praise us the good fortune. First on the list might be the old 150 tree on four or the one on six or nine. Seems ironic all the hated trees are 150 markers and no one even uses such antiquated technologies as guessing your distance from a marker at a certain point. Instead relying on electronic devices using hand held lasers, or GPS or an app on your phone or some such thing attached to your wrist like a watch, but I digress. I took several pictures to show the rain and if you look closely at the road material pile at the end you will see just how far this type of rain penetrates a loose pile of gravel. Cannot imagine it went any deeper on the rock hard brown rough.

Turf Maint. Facility yard

1st hole after it stopped

3rd tee drain

3rd green bunker

4th near the "used to be 150" tree

Water flowing around then thru the Mat. Storage yard and out the gate

The Water is actually coming off the course going behind the Mat. Storage Area and then flowing into that area and out the gate. When we built this storage area we learned the land behind heading towards the first green was almost flat so it became evident the water was either going to sit there in a huge lake or we had to let it follow the natural topography and run through the yard into the road.