May was unseasonably cool for the most part and with too much rain. We had 5" of rain on a weekend in early May and two other 2" rain events as well. Greens flourished quite well during May. The only problem from too much rain is that we had a lot of brown patch and black algae to treat on most of the greens.
You may have noticed that the greens were off color and stressed out, especially during the Memorial Day Scramble. I am trying to apply wetting agent and fertilizer treatments to the greens as little as possible due to the fact that we are scheduled to kill the green surfaces in early July. By cutting back on certain treatments we are saving quite a bit of money. We are wasting time and money otherwise. Applications I am not skimping on are the fungicide treatments for the Fairy Ring fungus that attacked the greens last year. We need to keep this disease under control prior to the conversion to Champions Bermuda.
Other improvements on the horizon include a new forward tee on hole #7, irrigating and re-grassing area on hole #14 adjacent to #13 cart path, extending the cart path to #4 senior and forward tee boxes, grassing in the bunker on hole #6, and building a new clinic green with bunkers just west of the existing one. Most of these projects will be addressed during grow-in time while we are shut down.
Projects I am focusing on now include getting everything in place for the conversion and building the new clinic green before the new grass is installed July 22nd.
We have a busy three months ahead of us and several challenges to deal with. Your patience and understanding during this renovation is a key part in the success of this project. As always, thank you for your continued support and we will see you on the course soon.
