Wet Wilt

Some may have noticed a few of our Greens looking a little rough.  Unfortunately the 1" of rain we had on Monday when heat index's have been over 100 degrees has created some problems.  The Greens surrounded by trees, mostly on the back nine suffered Wet Wilt and are looking a little thin.  It may appear these areas are "dry" or even have some disease but unfortunately neither of these are the case.  Wet Wilt occurs when the plant is unable to release the excess water inside due to high temperatures and the water boils and burst the plant cells from within.  The damage is most noticeable where the collar and Green meet, as well as on Greens with no air circulation.


Here is a picture of #14 Green and you can see the Wet Wilt damage running along a drain line of the Green. This Green is surrounded by trees and has a lower elevation than the rest of the property providing almost no air movement.  Luckily for us most of the Wet Wilt areas are small and surrounded by healthy turf.  When the weather breaks and we get out of the 90's we should see these areas recover nicely.

Cicada Killer Wasps

Most people see the wasps on #6 and #7 Greens and run in fear.  Well don't be scared, these wasps are actually not harmful to humans.  These monstrous wasps are Eastern Cicada Killers.  They look more menacing than they really are.  Unfortunately they create giant mounds of sand in the collars of our Greens so you may see some kids with tennis racquets taking care of these pests.

Vandalism

Unfortunately we had a group of golfers get a little too drunk over the weekend and did some major damage to the golf course.  Not only were they disruptive to other golfers, threw trash all over the course, they also did a significant amount of damage. We are repairing all their havoc and appreciate all your patience during this process.

We were able to call the Elkton police who did a great job responding right away to confront these vandals. Thank you for all those who witnessed it and did something about it.

Venting

Today some of the early golfers may have seen us running our Toro aerifier on Greens.  The perception is we are "aerifying" Greens, however a closer look shows what we are actually accomplishing.  These solid tines are 5" long and much smaller diameter than a coring tine. They are going 4" deep to allow oxygen into the soil. It is also alleviating compaction and creating channels through the organic matter layer. This lets the roots breathe, helps water get deeper into the soil to the roots, and loosens up high trafficked areas. With so many benefits it is easy to see why we do it.


The great advantage to using these small tines to vent the Greens is once the roller goes over it, you cant even tell we did anything.  Heres a photo of the roller smoothing out the holes. You can see the non-rolled Green on the right just after we vented it. The ball putts nice and smooth on the section on the left where the cup is.




















With 10+ days of 90+ degree weather later this week, its important to take advantage of this cooler weather.