Llanerch Golf Course and External Activities

Today starts what could be an extended heat wave. We are preparing the turf as best we can for not just high temperatures but for very few clouds and high humidity. We are quietly hoping the weather people are wrong and this heat wave ends way before the beginning of next week. You might notice the greens a bit slower this week. This is because the heat reduces our ability to use the greens roller. Thanks for your patience.

This is a picture from 2 fairway. You can see the foot print in the middle of the brown turf. It is clearly an application of sunscreen mist applied to someone's leg. I am a strong proponent of using sunscreen but please do not apply it when standing on grass. The sunscreen has alcohol in it and it burns the grass. Thanks!

Th first 12 days of July have been an extension of June. Warm, muggy and periods of intense rain. It has not had an adverse effect on the course so far. We have been concentrating our efforts almost completely towards tournament preparation. Between the Finsterwald Cup, Philadelphia Amateur, Ladies and Men's Member Guest, we have been very busy! We are taking today to add sand to greens and approaches, tree trimming and normal course conditioning.

As we prepare the course for play today, we are keeping an eye on the possibility of late day thunderstorms. The course could use a little rain but we prefer just a small amount, if it actually comes. Much of our focus will be getting the rough back to "every day" height of cut. During last week's Philadelphia Amateur, we were severely limited on when we could mow rough. Add some rain and fertilizer and you have thick and long rough. That being said, we are already very close to having the rough at the height that members expect.

This picture was taken today from the Clubhouse. We are excited to be the host of this year's Philadelphia Amateur! The GAP has done a first class job setting up this 115 year old event! We are just crossing our fingers that we stay away away for any rain..(until night time)! 

Yesterday marked the end of what we think of as a drought! The course received 0.75 inches of rain in the morning and 2.6 inches last night! It is still drizzling on and off today. It washed out some of the bunkers and limited our scheduled mowing but we will take the rain! The staff is concentrating on getting all the green side bunkers back in shape and if the weather improves, we will mow greens in the afternoon.  

It seems that rain will not fall in Havertown, In my many years at Llanerch, I can not remember it being this dry since 2003! We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will get some rain later today into tonight. One rain fall will not end this dry period but would go a long way to starting the end of what is becoming a drought like situation.