GCM HVCC Course Update 

Well we almost made it, The last 2 weeks have wreaked havoc on the golf course producing a host of problems. I feel like we are living out the Lord of the Rings scene where Gandalf is battling the Balrog, after finally defeating him, the Balrog sends one last whiplash catching Gandalf by surprise and dragging him down. Obviously the golf course is Gandalf and summer is the Balrog. With that colorful analogy in mind here is what's going on. 

Between August 16th and August 22nd the Golf Course received 4.25” of rain, it rained every day for 8 straight days. While the quantity was not extreme, the type of rain was what initiated all of the problems. The week prior we had received several substantial rains followed by high heat. Starting Monday the 23rd we received several slow and steady rains, with overcast skies when it wasn't raining, basically every day! Because of the nature of the rain, and the overcast skies, the golf course became extremely saturated. All of the slow rains went into the soil rather than running off the top the way it was designed too. If we had received the same rain in 3 storms with sun in between we wouldn't be sending this out. When the sun finally came out on Monday the 23rd it brought the heat with it. We were already seeing the signs of wet wilt on the 4th and 6th greens and that led us to needle tine all the greens Monday afternoon to prevent any further damage on the saturated greens. The areas affected on 6 and 4 get early afternoon sun which prolongs the soil moisture and prevents them from drying, you can see the same affected turf on the right side of 9 where there is extended morning sunlight. 

3 straight days over 95 with 3 tournaments Mon-Wed played pinball with the turf. In that time we went from battling wet wilt to battling drought, combine that with 225 golfers for a double shotgun on Wednesday and the course didn't stand a chance. So that's where we are, currently we are trying to balance out the moisture content across the golf course, mostly with hoses, watering hot spots and leaving the wet areas alone. Overall were ok, 4, 6, and 9 greens are the worst affected, 4 has already been reseeded with Bentgrass and will take 3-4 weeks to recover. The left side of 6 will be seeded Monday as well as the front of 9. 

Fairway damage is mostly cart traffic related to it being 97 degrees Wednesday and having 140 carts and 225 golfers on the fairways, 14 and 5 got hit with wet wilt, along with the front of 6 and 9 approach needs to dry out before we can patch it. Tees seem to have slid through without too much damage aside from divots. Now let's talk about collars and the first cut. 

Collars are banged up right now, as is the first cut around the greens. If you've noticed it seems to be a pretty consistent pattern. Here’s what's going on.  We sprayed a herbicide to clean up the crabgrass and Goosegrass on the collars and first cut, that's why there’s so much white turf in the collars. That's Goosegrass that's in the process of dying. The collars were already taking a beating, they are the first point of contact for any maintenance done to the greens and sustain a lot of traffic in the course of a day, they are also the drain point for the greens, water has to flow through the collars to get off. We knew we needed to re-seed them so we decided it was a good idea to kill the weeds first. The herbicide we used was safe for the variety of grass and seems to have done its job without any additional damage. The first cut was a surprise however, our herbicides were also safe for the first cut, however it weakened the turf, as most herbicides do, this allowed grey leaf spot, a particularly nasty disease to infect the ryegrass of the first cut and pretty much nuke it. By the time we saw what was going on it was too late to do anything, plus it was during a week where it wouldn't stop raining making fungicides pointless. We plan to begin re-seeding these areas Tuesday. 

Weather turns back to our side this week and we expect a full recovery within a month. Our goal is to not have to paint any Ground Under Repair for member guest and will be working hard to achieve that result. GCM appreciates your support during this time.