Black Friday

Thanksgiving day 2011

We had beautiful weather to start Thanksgiving at Sandpines.  In fact, the weather was so nice in the morning that Jim and I decided to play a quick 5 holes (holes 14 -18) before we joined our families for the days festivities.  Black Friday (today) started off even better, although the sun is currently playing peek-a-boo with a few clouds, but the temperature is 53 degrees.

Jim preparing to tee off on hole 14

This week, Jerry added the seasonal drain to the first green.  The drain remains capped off about 8 inches below the surface of the green for a majority of the year.  In times of heavy rain, the right portion of the green does not surface drain due to the shape of the green. The drain allows the green to drain quickly following heavy rain events.  The drain is quite small, so it rarely impacts play.

1 green seasonal drain

Tuesday was pretty windy at Sandpines.  We lost a few trees here and there, including a couple that blocked cart paths.  The portable toilet on the driving range also blew over for the first time.  Luckily, that was taken care of with a phone call to Buck's.  The new portable toilet that was delivered was placed by the ball shack at the driving range, where it will remain until we get a chance to revamp the old spot a bit.  Many of the greens were also covered with pine needles and had to be blown off.  Wednesday was the wettest day of the month with 1.54 inches of rain recorded.  The good news is, the extended forecast looks dry and sunny.

Tree blocking path near 12 green

Twosome enjoying the scenery on hole 12

We are still having pretty good weather considering the time of year (one week away from Thanksgiving).  We are 16 days through November and have only had 3 days so far this month that have totaled more than one third on an inch of rain.  The high temperatures have been in the low to mid 50's so far this week.

Some type of animal damage on the 3rd green

On Wednesday morning, I received a call about a hole that some type of animal had dug in the third green.  When I arrived, I saw the scene in the picture above.  Judging from the tracks, the hole appeared to be made by a coyote.  Sandpines has seen quite a bit of coyote activity this year.  Prior to this, the worst damage made by a coyote on the golf course was some disturbed sand in some of the bunkers.  Jim repaired the area rather quickly, but we are hoping to avoid any more damage like this.

Matt and Jerry repairing a bunker edge on hole 6

One of the projects we tackled this week was the repair of the right green side bunker on hole 6.  The edge of the bunker had been damaged over time by the use of our mechanical bunker rake.  The damaged area was removed and new sand and sod were installed to create a defined edge to the bunker.  There are other bunkers on the golf course with this type of damage, but this was the worst of them.  We hope to continue repairing these areas as time permits

Finished bunker repair

Update

Jim mowing 18 fairway

The weather has been great this week, and the sun is shining again today.  The high temperatures have been around 60 degrees the last couple of days.  We we able to fertilize greens, approaches, fairways, and the rough (2 passes around greens and fairways) with the favorable weather.  If the weather forecast holds, we hope to fertilize the tees next week.

Disease on 1 green

As you can see from the picture above, the aeration holes in the greens are healing up. However, as you can also see in the picture above, the greens also have some patches of disease.  The disease on the greens is known as Microdochium patch, or Fusarium patch, or Pink Snow Mold.  The name of the disease has changed over the years, but all are caused by the same fungus (Microdochium nivale).  It is the most common turf disease that occurs on golf courses in the northwest.  The disease came on towards the end of October.  A fungicide was applied the week after aeration.  The disease activity was halted and recovery started at the same time the aeration holes were healing.  About ten days after application, the disease was again active, and came on even stronger this time.  A fungicide was again applied and the disease was halted.  Earlier this week, the disease appeared to be active yet again, and the greens were treated with a fungicide for the third straight week.  Typically, fungicides control this particular disease for a range between 14 and 28 days depending on the fungicide used and conditions present.  The disease spots appear to be inactive and have healed some since the beginning of the week.  We will continue to monitor the greens on a daily basis and strive to get them healed as quickly as possible.

Buck chasing a doe

Our favorite buck came of out his hiding place this morning and was chasing a couple of does around.  We were pretty happy to see that he survived hunting season.  Hopefully, we will see some new fawns again next year.

Update

Hole 17

We had a couple of beautiful days this week.  Wednesday was about 60 degrees with blue sky and sunshine, which is not bad for November.  The temperatures have definitely been a little cooler at night.  Tuesday, we had our second frost delay of the fall (the first frost delay occurred last Tuesday).  The grass growth has started to slow down a bit.

Matt working in the bunker on hole 15

The tees were top dressed earlier this week.  We continued to mow down some of the brush and tall grass surrounding the primary rough, which will be an ongoing project as we have time.  We also started redistributing sand in some of the bunkers.

Me on hole 3