Golf Course Update

Weeks 3,4 and 5 of the North Course closure have come to an end. The past three weeks have been spent getting the golf course back in condition for opening. Due to the lack of rain in July, we have decided to push the North Course opening back until August 6th to give it proper time to recover from our maintenance practices. We anticipate opening the North Course in very good condition.

July started out very well in terms of rainfall, as we picked up almost 2 inches the first two days. From that point forward, it has been extremely dry. We have recorded an average of .40" of rain throughout the property since that time. During this time of year, we lose close to .25" of water in the soil per day through Evapotranspiration (ET). We really count on the summer rains to help push us through the hot weather, and to also replenish our lakes on property. The good news is that there are still a couple months remaining in the rainy season that could provide more than adequate rainfall.

North Course Closure - Week 1 & 2

The first two weeks of the North Course closure are of to a good start. We have successfully aerified greens and fairways. The picture above shows the machines we use during our greens aerification, the Toro ProCore 648. The machine is very smooth and capable of deeper aerification than Toro's previous walking aerator. This process helps us remove unwanted organic matter from the rootzone, and aids in deeper root development. I will do a more in-depth article regarding aeration and organic matter in the near future.



The fairways were aerated 2-3 different directions on the North Course this closure. The fairways that had the tendancy to dry out quicker, we aerated 3 times hoping to improve water infiltration and also build a stronger root system.

The 2nd week of the North Coure closure had us complete verticutting of the greens and tees. The greens are deeply verticut with a machine called Graden. The Graden helps us remove a portion of the thatch that has accumulated over the past season. A very necessary procedure to maintain high quality putting surfaces.

The verticutting of the tees is done for a similar reason as the greens. The bermudagrass found on the tees benefits greatly from verticutting. The surface gets denser and more upright from verticutting. This helps improve playability of the teeing surfaces, and also allows us to mow at lower heights of cut without fear of scalping the turf.

We finished the month of June with an average of 6.41" of rain around the Meditera property. For comparison, we received an average of 5.39" last year in June. We started July out nice with a 2" rain, and are hopeful for more on the way.