Beautiful morning

It's another beautiful morning at Lake Valley.  06:43 and the practice green is getting a little water as the sun tops the horizon and shows through the trees.

Patience Please!

Currently its 102 here...107 heat index.....My bentgrass greens cut at .125 inches are holding up fairly well...gotta LOVE summertime...

The message above was posted on a social media site by our Superintendent.  There are a few things to point out about this simple message.  First, in case you didn't notice, it's HOT!  With low overnight temps only dropping to about 80, the course really hasn't been getting much of a chance to recover before it heads back into another scorching day.  Continuous high temperatures are very stressful on turf, especially bentgrass greens that are mowed to very low heights.  We play a huge balancing game to try and keep the course conditioned the way golfers like it and still maintain the health of the turf. 

Because of the extreme heat, it is very likely that you will see greens being watered to cool them down, especially during afternoon heat.  If you are playing and see a member of the grounds crew hand watering your green, or if the irrigation is on, please be patient.  Don't hit into them unless they wave you on and are watching.  It will only take them a few minutes to syringe the green and they'll be gone and out of your way.  It certainly isn't worth the risk of seriously injuring someone who is only trying to maintain the golf course for your benefit. 

Rear Bunker on #10

For years it's been a headache to play out of, a headache for our grounds crew to maintain, and generally just not a popular bunker with anyone.  We're happy to announce that sometime in the next couple of weeks, depending on sod availability and other interruptions, the rear bunker on #10 will become a thing of the past.  This is a project that we had planned to complete this past winter but just were not able to accomplish.

Below are a couple of Photoshopped "before" and "after" looks at what you might expect.

This view from about 200 yards shows the area that will be zoysia and will be mown at the same height as the green collar.

The area of the bunker will be filled and contoured to match the existing mounds prior to receiving zoysia sod.  It will be mown at the same height as the collar, which should open the options to putt or chip a ball that lands there.  This course change is part of our Long Range Plan 

Finally, some rain!

After several days of 90+ degree temperatures and only 1" of rain since early June, we finally got a nice shower last night.  In spite of applying about 500,000 gallons of water to the course nightly, the continuous heat and lack of rain had begun to take it's toll on the course.  Alex reports that  about 1.25" of rain was recorded at the maintenance building gauge, while my gauge on the opposite side of the course near 12 fairway reached 2.25".   To show just how dry the course was....even after that rain Alex reports that cart traffic today will be at 90 degrees.

Stump Grinding

With tree removal comes the inevitable problem of stump removal.  Over the years we have accumulated quite a few tree stumps from trees that were either taken out during storms or removed for agronomy reasons.  Over the past couple of days we've been fortunate enough to try out a small(ish) stump grinder, and have removed over 15 stumps in various places around the golf course.

click pictures for original size

The picture above shows one of the bradford pear stumps that was on #6, right-rear of the green just as Alex begins the grinding process.

Just a fraction over 10 minutes later you can see the resulting hole where the stump has been ground all the way below surface level.



 The picture below shows the aftermath of the large honey locust stump on #6.  A little clean up and some topsoil and you'll never know there was a tree there.

4th of July Fireworks

Did you miss the 4th of July fireworks show Monday night at Lake Valley?  Or, were you there but enjoyed it so much and wish you could see it again?   Well, we don't have the entire show, but maybe the 2nd half of it available for you to view.

There are two clips here.  The first one is about 6:21 long and picks up in the middle of the show.   The 2nd clip is the last 4 minutes or so, including the finale'.   Both of these were shot in 720p HD, so if you will go Full Size you can view them in HD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Myqed8wOt8

and the final 4:00 or so, including finale'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qaPRvVTFuk

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