Hole 17

Sandpines ended up with 18.46 inches of precipitation in March. The last 7 days of March yielded 6.54 inches. I was reading Josh Clevenger's blog for Claremont Country Club located in Oakland, CA. He was mentioning they had a wet March with 5.38 inches for the month of March. Josh if you are reading this, that would be a record low rainfall for March at Sandpines (At least in the six that I have been here).

The front nine was closed last Saturday and Sunday due to high water. All 18 holes have been open this week, but their is still a fair amount of water in the low lying areas. That being said, the greens are rolling great. I have received several compliments about the greens as well as the overall condition of the golf course given the weather we have been experiencing. Our drier weather (only about 2 inches so far this week) has helped to greatly reduce the amount of standing water on the course. This week definitely has a spring feel to it. The sun has been out each day this week at some point or another. Once the rain stops, it does not take the course long to start drying up.

Hole 4 on 3/31/12 during peak high water

This week we have been able to get some mowing done. The greens, tees, collars, approaches, and driving range tee were all mowed. The greens were also groomed during mowing on Thursday. Greens were spiked and rolled on Wednesday. The greens also received a fertilizer and fungicide application earlier this week. More traffic control ropes were put out on holes 3 and 6 in order to prevent turf damage. Water was pumped in a few areas in an effort to reduce the amount of standing water.

Pumping water off the approach on hole 4

The driving range tee was opened for use this morning. Last year, I attempted implement a hitting strategy on the driving range that David Phipps has been pushing at Stone Creek (I believe the credit for the idea goes to Dan Meersman of Phily Cricket Club). I saw this hitting technique used some of the time last year on our range tee, which helped. If we can get the majority of our players to hit balls as in the picture below with the green check mark, our range tee will stay in much better shape this year. Credit for the picture goes to David Phipps.

Please use this strategy when using the driving range

The following video was copied from last years post when we opened the range. In the video, Dan Meersman does a great job comparing the impact of three different hitting techniques on the driving range tee at Phily Cricket Club.