Course Update 7/27/12

It’s finally Friday! I hope everyone is excited for the weekend, and looking forward to getting out on both courses. Since my last post San Antonio has received over 3” of rain (closer to 2.5” at Sonterra), far exceeding our normal total for July. Both courses have benefited greatly from the rain, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that more is on the way.

We have been extremely busy keeping up with both courses thanks to the nice rains. Currently we are mowing tees, fairways, collars, and approaches 3 to 4 times per week on each course. The roughs have also seen dramatic improvement from last year. All roughs are mowed at 2” and are cut at 1 to 2 times per week. I have received a few comments over the past week or so regarding the difficulty of the rough at this mowing height. We have been mowing at 2” for most of the year; however the rain has helped the turf reach this height and improved/increased density. Thicker roughs provide more definition, rewards well hit shots, and tolerate traffic better. On the flipside – the same rough can make the golf course too difficult, slow down play, and decrease the enjoyment of the game for some golfers. We feel that a mowing height of 2” provides a happy medium for most of the year. If we continue to get rain through August and September then we will have excellent definition this winter.

Weeds, weeds, weeds. The rain has also rejuvenated many undesirable plants thorough out the property. We are working very hard to keep these areas under control through a combination of weed eating, mowing, and chemical applications. There are many out of play areas on the North Course that are very difficult and time consuming to maintain. We are working on these areas and ask for your patience as we progress throughout the course.

Overall the greens on both courses are doing well. The outline below should give you a quick summary of what’s going on:

• North: Overall doing well
• Aeration from 7/9 completely healed
• Continued frequent light vertical mowing and topdressing. We will vertical mow and topdress again this coming Monday o Still firm, but softening up some
• Received first treatment for ‘Goosegrass’ yesterday. ‘Goosegrass’ is the small grassy weed found on the collars and on the greens. All weeds should be gone in 3 to 4 weeks
• Will begin soil amendments to lower sodium and pH
• South:
• Aeration from 7/16 completely healed o Continued frequent light vertical mowing and topdressing. We will pencil tine aerate and topdress again this coming Monday
• Working to establish better roots
• Working to remove grain by vertical mowing and brushing o Root pruned and re-leveled the collar on #7 to help improve turf density on back of green