The big news for this week is that the fire Pit at the clubhouse is finally finished!!! As you may know it was originally built as a wood burning pit but as it sat in the prevailing wind the smoke left everyone around it smelling like a log fire. It has been converted to propane and the finished item looks great. The biggest part of the conversion from wood burning to propane was to add vents in the sides so the propane (heavier than air) can escape and to let air into the bottom of the fire ring for combustion. Once they were in place, Scott our equipment/shop manager built trays that fit in underneath the cap stones. The trays provided the gap for the air and propane to enter/escape below to the vents while reducing the amount of fill needed to finish the pit off. It also required a little re-plumbing of the valve so that it fit on top of the glass and it is now closer to the corner.
Scott welding the frames
The stone masons installing the vents
The frames being installed (the new vent can be seen in the wall)
Scott screwing the trays together
The finished tray
Adding a base of sand
Adding the glass
The finished item
This week we also got around to draining the wet area by the Learning Center. We had regraded the lawn area a couple of times so the water would flow to the pond but it never proved effective so this week we added a drain to the area to fix it once and for all.
Since the low spot was actually in the asphalt we extended the drain line into the path so it would capture all the water
The night after we completed it, we had over 1.5" of rain and the area was dry the next morning. That same rainfall washed out all the bunkers and the crew worked diligently on Friday to ensure they were all prepared for the weekend.
18 washed out
The washouts on 15
Other than the bunker washouts, the course held up well during the storm and actually dried out quickly - most likely because the rain was so heavy that the majority ran off rather than soak into the soil. As such, we were able to let carts out late in the morning on Friday and we were even able to mow fairways in the afternoon. I decided to mow them as the forecast is for an extended wet period so squeezing another cut in means they can go longer if it gets too wet. It also helped remove some of the brown/tan areas you may have noticed on fairways. These areas were caused by the fertilizer/fungicide application on Thursday. The liquid potash in the tank was a little 'hot' so it caused tip burn on the plants, especially on drier areas. A 'hot' fertilizer is one with a high salt index which can burn the plant if not watered in immediately - sometimes you have to live with the discoloration for a day or two to get the right product out. While it's never ideal to burn a plant, a little tip burn is not a problem. Grass plants grow from the crown out so the the tip of the leaf is actually the oldest part of the plant, so if it gets a little burn, it is ok as it gets mowed right off. As such, after mowing on Friday they looked a lot better, although a few approaches are still brown but once they are mowed next week, they will look fine again.
Tip burn on 16 fway - Tip burn frequently occurs in the tire tracks as the tire fold the leaf over exposing more of the leaf to the product being applied - again it usually mows right out.
A close up of the tip burn - you can see the brown tips but that there is plenty of healthy green tissue beneath
The green areas are the areas that were protected from the foot traffic as they had furniture placed on them. The pictures are nice indicators to show how much damage excessive traffic can cause to even healthy turf and to why it is necessary to minimize stress during periods where the turf is weakened, so it performs well, long term and recover from damage.
