End of Summer?

On the last day of August as we head into the Labor Day wknd it is the Chamber of Commerce end of summer but how about the rest of us? The weather sure seems to have changed. We have had rain unlike other parts of the country. We have had some cool nights, and the high temps most days are in the 70's. I would call that a welcome change and a sure sign that summer is ending and fall is on the way. With all the stress on the oaks this season they are dropping leaves like it is fall. Mentally leaves on the grass in august make me think the place looks messy and not in a festive Autumn way. The acorns are dropping on a regular basis as well so that adds a dimension to grass mowing on tees and greens at least. If you do not clean them off they will be pushed into the surface and become a hazard to putt over or leave a dent when they do come out. Also if they or a stick gets caught in the mower they can be dragged across the surface cutting a gouge into the turf. Reason number 127 why we hate trees overhanging greens and tees. As if that wasn't enough of a hazard, lately rocks are appearing on one specific green sporadically. No logical explanation for how they are getting there on their own so we are assuming this is a prank of some sort. Not very humorous if we do not catch them before the mower as this is 3/4 inch gravel and will do severe damage. We are hoping the culprit, assumed to be a juvenile, heads back to school soon and the problem goes away. pictures below show them in Barry's hand and then a couple a week later on the green.

rocks being left on green

rocks on the green. aerified over one before i saw it.

We had three irrigation leaks in a one week span. Talked about one on the second collar. The next was under the winter tee by the cart barn and the third was a blow out on the third hole sat night. At this rate I will be wishing for more than better weather, instead wishing winter were here so we can blow the darn thing out and be done with it for a bit.

good size root taking advantage of this slow leak for years under a tee

only metal part of this system

rotting piece of galvi?

We also had a sign post show signs of failure on 4 tee. Ryan brought in the culprit and Will made a new one from the spare poles we kept when we made them over a decade ago. We stole the design from the Captains in Brewster, MA. The boat cleat tee markers were also part of this nautical theme change. I did ask the Superintendent, Steve Mann, CGCS so maybe we could say borrowed the theme!

The tall post is supposed to be long and in the ground. others decoration

finished "new" sign post

Next week is aerifying of greens and that should be one solid day of disturbance and they should be decent within a couple of days and back to 100% within a week. There have been several posts here about aerifying if you want to look in the archives. There is even a video of the process from last year HERE Lets hope for better weather than last year. We plan to aerify the collars and maybe even approaches but will use solid tines to avoid the cores and all that they entail. We lose Mike next week as he heads off to heavy equipment school and also Barry as he goes to Hawaii for a month. Later in the month Otis heads to Alaska for a cruise so as I mentioned in some previous posts staffing will be interesting in the month of September. We are ahead of aerifying projects already so all will be well as long as the irrigation system and the weather behaves.