July Recap in Pictures

The last month or so has been challenging in many ways (a nice way of saying cruel!) with record rainfall, extreme and prolonged humidity, wind storms, power outages, paddle project site work, tournament and event preparations, turf disease, flood damaged turf, mosquitoes, flies, cart recovery from channel, and probably a half dozen other "challenges"! With all this fun I haven't had much time to blog. Each of the above could be an entry on it's own but I thought today I would recap the past month in photo/caption form.

 Mid-July, Mowing and more frequent rolling in early preparations for Derby

Bunker prep with sand depths of all checked, sand redistributed and added as needed, surfaces smoothed, runners (turf that has encroached into sand) removed, edges compacted and smoothed. They were all ready for Derby.

 Rafa and Javier perform annual pre-Derby "harvesting" of cattails at pond #18 
(and other ponds too)

 Jacob, Carlos, Alo, add fabric and stone and then level in areas which will be under the five new paddle court locations. Gravel helps melt water drain better, keeps area (and heaters beneath) cleaner and drier, and makes heater servicing more accessible.

 Believe it or not irrigation was needed through first 3 weeks of July. We had only approx. 1" of rain from the middle of June through the third week of July. Hard to remember it being dry huh?

 On this day we were seeing a nice dry sheen and a little spritz was needed to limit any wilting and potential mower injury.

 Jacob adds just the right amount of water, only where needed, to keep surfaces fast and firm.

Then the rains came and in about 12 days (July 23-Aug. 3) we were left with 10+ inches.

 Here in afternoon on July 23rd I'm turning on a few sprinklers in the flooded areas to add cooler water to the rapidly warming water. Perhaps it helped to lessen the damage, as in these areas the resulting turf loss is minimal.

 As the waters receded this was a familiar sight. Here Urbano squeegees on #3 fairway.

We put a lot of wear on these this year! 

 This guy's wondering where the water went? It quickly drained in this bunker on #2 but the sediment that the flood waters left behind would need to be hand scraped and discarded to prevent contamination and potential future diminished drainage.

 By the way... It's been damn hot at times! 101 degrees in the shade!

 With all the water gone (and hopefully heavy rain and extreme heat past) we now see areas were turf is damaged. Repairs have already begun and include additional drain pipe installation where needed, and one or more processes such as aeration, sand topdressing, spiking, seeding, and sodding.

 This goes in the category of "Anything is possible on the golf course!"

 

 It was a miserably hot day so Jacob didn't mind jumping in to secure a tow strap to the front bumper. We pulled it out with our 4X4 Dump Truck and now Ed has a new bridge railing project!

 Back to the Paddle Courts. Here I'm digging for the main electric feed from the Grounds Operations Center. We've got some additional drainage to add near the courts too and landscaping to install before long.

 Mornings and sights like this help us forget the many "challenges" we've faced this year.

Looking forward to a long, mild fall!