All golf course superintendents know that managing turfgrass, a living, breathing organism subjected to numerous environmental stresses year round, can bring new challenges everyday.” This summer the rain has certainly been our biggest challenge at Olde Florida!
The center of Tropical Storm Debby was a 100 miles off our coastline yesterday morning. Her fast moving, but rainfall laden outer bands dumped 8.5” of rain on Olde Florida over the weekend. That brings the total rainfall in the last 65 days to 47.4”! In addition to the 8.5” Debby deposited on Olde Florida, in June we received 24.25” and 14.65” in July. These are a few pictures taken at Olde Florida this morning.
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On a positive note, the evapotranspiration rates and the available hours of sunlight are both very high in the summer months and our turfgrass is very healthy! Once the water recedes, recovery of the minimal damage will be extremely quick.
We have also been fortunate the rain this summer has primarily occurred on days we are not scheduled for a summer closure. While this is unfortunate for the members that play Olde Florida in the summer, it’s fortunate for the membership at large because we are on schedule with our necessary cultural practices and projects.
Since my last entry, It's Summer in Southwest Florida ... and that means it's "Cultural Practice Season!" , the greens have received another 5/8” core aeration and a second Drill and Fill process.
The tees and approaches have been aerified and we have installed another 250’ of drainage on #11 approach and 175’ to the right of 8 green.
We have also made our annual application of Chipco Choice for mole cricket control (video below) and our tree project on #17 is progressing.
Our hard work to provide the best possible playing conditions for the members and guests of Olde Florida will continue! Hopefully mother nature continues to reasonably cooperate!
