With Hurricane Florence set to make landfall in North Carolina, we are doing everything we can to be ready for the intense rainfall that looks like will impact us, starting Saturday. Some of the things we've done this week to get ready for the rain include:
1. We edged all the drains on the golf course so they can accept large channels of water.
2. we are making sure all the gutters and down spouts are clean on all buildings around campus.
3. The most important: Thursday morning, we will be venting greens with pencil tines. This year's large rain totals combined with excessive shade, has created some challenges on a couple greens. Having open holes on the greens will allow water to move into the root zone and into internal drainage pipes much faster than if there were no open holes. While I apologize for the inconvenience, this is one of those times we need to overcompensate for the things we have control over to help make up for those things we can't control in regards to the growing environment of our greens.
4. On Friday, we'll be applying more potassium fertilizer along with calcitic lime to the greens. Again, if it's going to rain (some are predicting as little as 3" and others as much as 15"), we might as well let the rain carry some nutrients to the roots!
5. Our equipment techs made sure all of our chainsaws are sharp, oiled and gassed up. Hopefully there isn't a lot of wind the accompanies this rain but if there is, we want to be ready to go with no down time.
Rest assured if we do experience any damage from this storm system, this team will hit it head on and clean up the golf course as quickly as possible.
