And a lot has happened in that month! For one, it has rained about every other day. Or so it seems. We aren't talking a drizzle either. I'm sure a toll is being taken due to all the moisture. What the extent of that toll will be probably won't be seen until July and August. But it is concerning. The low areas are paying a price as we speak. Those areas that were damaged or thinned due to the moisture last year are continuing to have issues or sustain further damage. The greens that are shaded and tend to stay wet, #4, #6, and #14 for example, are definitely showing the signs of having sustained long stretches of excess moisture. Mostly thinning at this point. The putting green has also started to thin, which is probably as much an excess traffic issue as moisture. We have the First Tee, the lesson clinics, and outing putting contest all taking a toll on the PG.
The tees are filling in nicely! Since my last blog we aerated and seeded them again. They are moving in the right direction and should continue to improve. Since last summer, we have aerated and seeded the tees three times.
Pic of #17 tee ...
The greens healed nicely from aeration. Once we got a few warm days they really took off. They are in great shape for the most part. The main issues are the overall thinning and damage around the cup due to the excess moisture, especially on those mentioned above. Hopefully with a break in the weather, if we get one, we can make some ground back before the truly stressful weather arrives.
Pic of #17 green ...
The irrigation system is fired up and charged. We haven't needed it, but it is available. In fact, we haven't needed it since the first week of August 2018, which is pretty amazing. We have gone through all of the greens, approaches and tees. We have some small issues here and there but nothing major.
We did fix the valve that ran from the main pipe to the tee on #10. That tee had not run since I have been here and apparently had not run in the few years prior to my arrival. Since the snap valve for #9 green was so close and the tee so small, it had just been hand watered. It was the last of the 25 plus "Irrigation Issues" list I was handed by Kyle G. when I arrived. Some of which, like this one, had been allowed to linger for years. Once we dug it up I understood a little better why it had been allowed to linger. It was deep ( if you saw the hole you saw how deep it was ) and had PVC going to metal on one end with a 2.5 inch gate valve on the other to a flow span going out. The flow span is what failed, probably due to the torque of the pipes not being straight. I'll be honest, I'm shocked our fix didn't leak, but knock on wood, so far so good.
The fix on #10 tee only fixed two more sprinklers. However, considering where we were three years ago, it was a pretty big accomplishment. When I arrived in February of 2016, we had three tees, two entire fairways, two greens, and an approach not running at all. Nothing. Nada. Along with who knows how many individual non functioning sprinklers. So it has been a lot of work to fix the "list" as well as everything else that failed throughout the three seasons.
So that is what is happening in the Cranbury Maintenance Department!
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