Llanerch Golf Course and External Activities

I feel like I keep blogging about the same subject: rain. As we tried to aerify greens yesterday, the rain kept making the task more difficult. We did get all the greens aerified but did not get sand topdress down on five of the greens. The wet turf makes putting the sand down to fill the aerification holes almost impossible. Our level of success in filling the holes determines how fast they will heal (ie: the more the hole is filled to the surface, the faster they disappear). We will spend the entire day trying every technique possible to fill the holes. We also have the forecast threat of flooding rains coming tomorrow also prompting us to finish today. Updates will follow.    

It has finally stopped raining (I hope). The course is starting to drain out. The main issue continues to be the bubbling of areas in the fairways. This picture shows what happens when we poke a hole in the bubbles. The water just spouts right out. In some locations, these spouts have been running for close to two days! The wettest spots are the bottom of  9 rough and 1, 18, 10 and 6 fairways. We just finished fixing all sand in the bunkers. The course is open for walkers but carts continue to be ruled out. We appreciate your patience as we continue to get the course back together and try to get the carts out and about. 

Since the last Golf Course Update, we have received 7.5 more inches of rain! 2.5 inches came last night and it is still raining! The course was so wet yesterday that we had to close it even to walking. It is safe to say that we will not have carts today at the least. As for the golf course, we are seeing the growth of black algae on some areas where the water is either puddling and/or flowing across on fairways and greens. This algae can damage and/or kill turf. We are going to do what ever we can to reduce the areas of damage. Lets just hope for the return of some sunny skies. 

The course was hit with just over 7 inches of rain. We had sustained gusts of over 55mph. All the bunkers had "washouts". Fairways 1,6,7,10, 5 & 18 were basically flooded in sections. As you can see in this picture, sections of the fairways actually "bubbled" up from all the water. (CLICK on the picture) We had to cut them open with a knive and squeeze the water out! Tree damage was not too bad. Most of the damaged is located along the 5 fence line. We have a tree company coming out this week to clean those spots. The Greenkeepers concentrated on leaf and branch cleanup yesterday. We were still able to mow greens but nothing else. We plan to mow greens, most of the fairways and rough today. We will also start raking and shoveling sand back in place in the bunkers. It will probably take us most of the week to get the bunkers back in shape. . Our task was made more difficult by the loss of power but I am glad to report the Grounds Maintenance Facility and irrigat...

The forecast has gone from bad to worse. We are planning on experiencing high winds and heavy rain. We spot aerified 18, 9 and 2 green this morning to improve water movement. The staff is locating and clearing all drains on the course. We are being as "proactive" as possible or as I call it, playing "defense". Heavy rains are our least favorite type of weather because we condition the turf all season to be dry. It is amazing to think July was the hottest month in Philadelphia history and August will be the wettest of all time.  I plan to post updates on the conditions as soon as possible once the storm is gone.

With all the rain coming over the next few days, we are working to reduce potential damage. Today we are "spiking" greens. The "spiker" makes very thin slicing incisions to the green surface. This helps the water penetrate the surface and increases the amount of oxygen in the soil. The last thing we want is the water to sit on the surface of the green. We roll the greens after we spike to smooth out the surface. It should have almost no affect on putting. It is more an aesthetic issue for golfers. We also will be aerifying low lying areas in fairways to again help drain water and increase oxygen levels. If you CLICK on the picture, you will get a better look at the "spiker" incisions. 

Here is the architect Stephen Kay's drawing of the Restoration of the 18th hole. The construction will start in mid-October. During the project, I will keep the blog up to date on it's progress. CLICK on the drawing to see it in more detail.