Last year it was a flood (we played only 13 holes on the second day), about 10 years ago it was a microburst felling 42 trees, there's been other years with strong storms and downed trees, there's been some years with very high temperatures, and this year Kiltie Days once again had quite unsettled weather. Fortunately we didn't get the flooding rains of last year (we had just .75 inches) and it wasn't until most of the days matches were complete, but we did have gale force winds (over 65 mph) and the aftermath left 3 trees, the tops of 2 more, and a huge mess of smaller branches and leaves littering the course. And, there's still many broken branches up in tree canopies, and probably more that we haven't seen yet (but will when they begin to wilt and turn off colored), that will all need to be pruned in the coming days.
The subject of a long Friday night! (fore and aft the sand piles)
One of at least 5 causalities of the 65 mph winds
From the time the first storm on Friday passed (there was another overnight) until well into the dark hours of the night, our grounds staff sawed, hauled, blew, and raked the debris and had the course fairly well cleared. The overnight storm then brought down a bit more debris and so bright and early (well, not so bright...but definitely early!) Saturday morning, more blowing, raking, and mulching brought the course to a tidy condition once again. It was certainly a long week preparing for the event with multiple mowing and many other maintenance tasks before and during the practice round and throughout the event, and then addressing the wake of the storm, but I'm happy that this year's Kiltie Days proceeded with only minor disruption and that the rain totals were relatively low.
It's been a different story over the past two months as the data below shows!
Over 5.5 inches more rain than normal for the past month and a half!
It's rained 15 of the last 22 days, and we've had 3 inches more than normal in May and 2.5 inches more than normal so far in June. Unfortunately more is expected tonight. I'm thinking this 5.5 inches extra rainfall to date, might just have something to do with the rough (and all areas) being very lush, and the fairway and green surfaces being softer and slower than usual! A little drought would be just fine about now!
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