Weekly update & a great post about water

Another perfect Fall week has passed. The weather is spectacular although very dry. Our best chance for rain came on Sunday during the Hospice event and it did rain for a bit but the total of .1" is welcomed but not really putting a dent in our dry spell. I switched over to town water this week to give the well a break and to flush some of the salts we have been spreading around in the last few weeks. In my email this week I received the TurfNet blog aggregator where Peter compiles blog posts that he finds interesting, timely or well done. One in particular caught my interest by a superintendent in Minnesota about why rain is better than irrigation. Check it out here Why Rain Makes the Course Look So Good

"Coverage from rainfall is full and not affected by outside agents, such as wind. Overhead irrigation can never provide perfect coverage..."

I follow Chris on twitter and he is a rising star in the industry. It is not hard to see why he was hired to prepare Hazeltine for the 2016 Ryder Cup. It has been fascinating to see how they are starting prep now!

"The water dries, and the water spots are almost impossible to remove. You will also notice that once it rains, those hard water spots on your windshield go away..."

I have discussed the quality of our water here ad nauseum but I rarely mention that our coverage is not spectacular to put it mildly. In the post above Chris mentions how different the design of irrigation is in arid climates vs the northeast. Now ponder that our system is still using the original pipes from 1936. That is a long time ago and even though we added on an automated system in the 90's this was done on a budget and not state of the art when it was installed. To say we are antiquated would be the understatement of the century. So now you understand why I lament these dry spells.

bottom of cup cutter roots & sand channels why we deep tine aerify

fescue/little bluestem mowing after & before looking towards 8 green

got acorns?

Speaking of the Hospice event our winners: 3 Generations of the Santos clan: Grant, George Sr, Jr, and our very own Max who raked bunkers for the event. Sr will be 90 this year and was a caddie here in the 30's. Jr was a caddie here in the 70's and since we no longer have caddies Max is a greenkeeper.

On a scary note we did not have Fred Pekari all week as he spent the week in Mass General with his bad ticker. They finally made up their mind and did a few stints and balloons instead of bypass and sent him home Thursday. So not quite the sunset for Fairway Fred just another heart procedure. I expect you will see him back on the links very soon.

sunset over Mink Meadows Pond

Edit: as soon as I posted this and walked out of my office look who showed up: