Tropical Storm Arthur and Venting the Greens

It's nice to see summer in full swing and with that the golf course in full summer mode.  The recent heat and lack of precipitation has caused us some grief, but with a little extra work (particularly by Tyler Roulston, our hoping irrigation tech) the golf course is playing great.  Today is the conclusion of the Senior Men's Club championship and the next few weeks have many important dates in store for us.

The recent Tropical Storm that past through the Maritime left the course unscathed with the exception of losing some rather prominent trees.  Here are some photos of the downed trees.

This was a very beautiful Linden on the back of number 8 green.  Unfortunately the tree was too large to stand up and had to be removed.

This a large very old maple behind number 13 green, while the tree show no outward damage, the interior of the tree was very rotten and it's not surprising that it collapsed under the 90 mph winds.

Another shot of the interior of the tree on the back of 13 green.  At the moment there are no plans to remove the remaining section, however we will keep an eye on in the future for signs of failure.

Another beautiful tree at the back of nine green, this Ash suffer several broken limbs and had to be removed.  

One of our recently planted trees, this Maple on the back of 6 tee also succumbed to the pressure of the wind.

We were fortunate to not have suffer as much as the some of the folks in NB, but the was still quite a bit of debris on the course after the storm.  We spent most of Monday cutting and cleaning up fallen leaves and trees, and play resumed normally for the Senior Men's Club Championship.

Bill Townsend, the course Equipment Tecnician, helping out by blowing debris ahead of the fairway mowers

And here's me trying not to cut my foot off.

All said and done the staff came together very well to help bring the course back up to tournament shape, poor conditions not withstanding.  Our hats are off to them for a great job.

With the recent heat and little rain in the forecast,  we will be venting the green to allow for better water infiltration and gas exchange.  Following the end of the Championship this afternoon, some of our staff will be returning to the course to start the process.  We will be using 1/4 solid tines at a three inch spacing.  We will not be adding sand to the greens, and we will not be pulling cores form the greens.

 While the tines are roughly the same thickness of a pencil, there will be a minor impact on the putting surface of the green.  We will be rolling the greens this evening following the venting and then again over the next few days.

You can see from the photo above that the disruption will be minor and recovery will be in a very short period of time, following this very necessary pro-active process.  If you have any questions please call or email us. See you out there and enjoy your round.