Getting there and Weather Underground

Welcome to Summer. The holiday weekend is upon us and the weather has turned a bit warmer. The course appears to be getting into shape and starting to look as good as it has played. The construction is almost behind us with the last of the woods on 3 being seeded. Speaking about 3 the sod has been lowered so at least you can find your ball and pull it out to the approach or nearest point of relief. That is easier to say than do in some parts of the hole with the entire right side having been seeded. Do the best you can. If it looks like a seeded area move over. Murph found a baby foul running around the 8th hole. A long way from any water.

Quack

I swapped our moisture meter with a colleague who had one that measured salinity which ours did not. This was not a feature he needed and we sure do so it was a win-win for both of us. I tested it out this week on a fertilizer spill on the first hole. When testing greens the salinity was in the .6 range. This spill area was 1.2 all the way up to 8.55. As you can see synthetic fertilizers can have a high salt index and if concentrated will kill grass. It was a good lesson on how to use the new meter.
I flushed that area today with some gypsum and will replant when the meter shows acceptable levels.

Got Salt?

The pictures below cannot do justice to the colors in the high rough these days. The red top mixed in with the purple fescue seed heads is stunning.

Red Top in tall rough

#3 is coming along and this warmer weather will only help. We will have to install another sprinkler to hit the lower half of the new sod. Hopefully this week.

lowering sod height

My last post was a plea for people to help us improve the course by following the directional signs and ropes and stay off newly seeded and sodded areas. I also asked people to keep their pull carts off the collars of the greens. The pictures below show people inside the ropes and pull cart tracks right up the right collar on three and on new seeded area to the left of the 3rd approach bunker. Obviously these people are not reading this blog or getting the message.

Not getting much help......

On a tip in the TurfNet forum from a Superintendent in Illinois, Chuck Barber St Charles CC, I purchased an inexpensive weather station. It is WiFi and connected to the Weather Underground site. Check it out HERE Bookmark the site for all your Mink Meadows weather interests.