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7-Day Forecast

 

More Rain!

 

Another 3" of rain fell last night.  This morning, the focus is on single cutting greens and golf course cleanup for the 9:00AM start of the Men's Club Championship.  The golf course remains so wet right now that getting a greens roller from the cart path to most putting greens is impossible!  Mowing will resume next week.  It will take a full week of no rain and sun for the golf course to dry out at this point.  Please remain patient!

On #10, the intense rain caused a section of pond bank to collapse. The total rainfall for the last three days is over 6" and over the past 3 weeks, we've had over 10" of rainfall.

New Signage at Pipers Court

 

If you access the golf course from Pipers Court, you'll notice new signage on that path alerting members and guests to be aware of golfers teeing off from #11 tees.  This has been an issue this season and a clear safety hazard.  We pruned back the vegetation to a point that it is easier to see if golfers are on the tee.  This winter, the green committee is also considering widening the cart path at #11 tees to make it easier for 2-way traffic to pass one another.  Stay tuned for more on that project as we finalize our off-season priorities!

Rain

 

Last night we received another 1.75" of rain.  We have reached a point to where there isn't a whole lot we can do on the golf course in terms of mowing with heavier equipment.  Trying to do so, causes more damage than it does good. We are doing the best that we can, using rotary push-mowers to mow areas in the rough.  The golf course is so wet, that even trying to walk with a mower in some of these areas is difficult.  We've even been walk-mowing fairway areas the last two weeks but even those mowers are too heavy and only bring mud to the surface.  Please understand that this is a stressful situation for my team as we patiently wait for a drier forecast.  In the meantime we appreciate your patience with the condition of the golf course.

Wet Conditions and 7-Day Forecast

The continuous rain is requiring us to use walk mowers on many areas in fairways and rough, where larger equipment is causing damage.  We appreciate your patience while we work through this challenging weather.  Saturday's forecast looks promising for the Bob Jones Tournament!

More Deer!

Greenkeeper, Billy Brooks caught this image of a Mom and baby deer jumping the stream on #6.

Greens Maintenance

One of the ways we speed up greens is through verticutting using a machine with reels like you see above. It's called vertical mowing because the blades are like a series of table-saw like blades that reach deep into the turf canopy, pulling up decaying plant matter and even standing up the grass.  This does a couple things to benefit ball roll.  First, it stands the grass up, allowing us to get a better cut when it's followed by greens mowers.  Second, it thins the canopy to a small degree, which reduces friction working on the golf ball.  This again, increases speed.  With the Bob Jones Tournament on Saturday, we've been using this machine daily for the past week.  In addition, we are mowing greens again each afternoon.  The weather has not been very cooperative for us, but the cumulative effects of doing this along with a morning and afternoon mowing program, will lead to faster greens by Saturday.  Now, if only the rain would stop and the sun would shine!

Above, you can see some of the material that remains on the green after running the verticutter across it.  The green is then mowed and blown to clean up any clippings left on the turf.

Deer on #15

This morning, this buck was seen getting a drink in #15 pond!

Monday Tree Work

 

This morning, Young Tree Service is on site working on 2 trees above the stone patio at the Clubhouse.  There is a large dead limb in one of the trees as well as unsightly sucker growth coming from a number of areas on the trunks of each tree.  Oak trees are notorious for this growth and about every other year, we make an effort to remove them from the key Oak trees on the campus.

Rain Totals for 2025

This summer has been very unusual.  The temperatures and humidity have been much higher than usual and rainfall over the past three weeks seems to be a daily occurrence.  Here is what the numbers say...

Year-to-date, we've had 45.6" of rain.  If you extrapolate that over the period of a year (assuming the trend continues), it works out to 78.17" of rain, which would be considered a drought year.  However, we still have the autumn months ahead and it always seems like historically, our larger rain events occur during that season. 

From a golf course perspective, it's been too wet over the past month.  Looking back over the season, our irrigation system got it's fair share of use but, the rain events we had during the early part of the summer were spaced out nicely, giving the perception that we've had plenty of rain.  But again, the numbers don't lie and we are in a slight drought.  An "average year" of  96" of rain, we would normally have an additional 10" of rain by now.  With the climate changing, there's no question that 'normal' or 'average' is relevant anymore. While the reason for the climate change is up for debate, Highlands weather is much different than it was 25 years ago.  The all-day rains and steady afternoon showers have been replaced with constant severe storms.  We still get the rain totals that designate this area a temperate rain forest, but the type of rain we get is far different from the past.  The temperatures speak for themselves.  Even some of the pest problems we see on the golf course are different today compared to 25 years ago.  

Great Photo of Our Osprey

 

Our resident Osprey scored a solid lunch this afternoon!

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Pumpstation Work

I reported last week that one of our irrigation pumps went down because of a broken pump shaft.  The good news is, we haven't needed much irrigation water this summer and when we did, we still have two other pumps that can carry us just fine.  Today, we had a crane lift the pump out of the pumpstation, where it is being hauled off to be repaired.  In a couple weeks, it will be back and running like it always has!

Summer Weather

They don't call them the 'dog days of summer' for nothing!  2025 is going to go down as one of the warmest summers on record with extreme humidity and daily gully-washer rain events!  It has been a challenge for Superintendents everywhere and several that I've spoken to have said many Clubs are struggling to keep turf.  Armyworms, a pest that is rarely ever seen in the mountains, has been reported on several locations and it's not even August!  Many courses off the mountain, are even closing several days a week because the putting green turf is so fragile and can't withstand the traffic.

Practice tee divots are washed out again.

With the constant heavy rains, James is having to fill divots on the practice tee 3 and sometimes 4 times before we get germination.  Because of the humidity, our fungicide applications on fairways and in the rough are so short lived because the disease pressure is that high.  Today, we are spraying fairways again because I am seeing a lot of brown patch break through.  Our rough mowers are doing the best they can but as wet as it is, it's difficult to not leave a tire track here and there.  This afternoon, we'll have a team of 8 workers, armed with push mowers, mowing a lot of the rough on several holes that we simply cannot get to with heavier equipment.  These are a few examples of how the weather affects the work we do and you can see how weather patterns like this require more resources.  The good news is, we got this!  Before you know it, fall will be here and the humidity will drop, which allows us the ability to provide the best golfing conditions!

We lost a smaller size tree on #12 during last night's storm.

If you look closely, you can see two circles in the turf.  That is the beginning stages of brown patch.