The Red crested last Monday at 40.93' which of course was significantly lower than everyone thought it was going to be. That water level covered most of 9 and 17 fairway, and put water onto the right sides of 15 and 18 fairway and through the low spots of 7 and 14 fairway. However, the only green that the water got to was 8 green, and it just barely got to the front of it. That was a huge blessing in the amount of work in hosing silt that was saved by not having to work on any greens. As the water slowly recedes, it is looking like very little turf will actually be lost as it is going to be a relatively "quick" flood. 9 fairway just showed back up today after being under water for only 9 days, a far cry from the 30 days that it was under in 2011! At this time I am really hoping that the amount of reseeding we will have to do because of this flood will be very minimal.
Unfortunately, the flood did delay some of the work that we have been able to do on the course for the last week though. It makes it really difficult to get out and mow some grass and do some other tidying up of the property when it is a 5 mile drive from the maintenance shop to some of the high holes. Now that the water is down enough that we can sneak equipment across the course in a few spots we are back in business.
Most important is getting our renovated tees cleaned up, put back together, and seeded ASAP. As of May 3rd both 15 and 17 tees were completed, seeded, and covered. However, since the irrigation system isn't able to be charged up yet we are using pumps and about 300' of hoses to to utilize flood water to irrigate the seed with. Not ideal, but it's the only option at this point.
We have begun working on 2 and 3 tees and hope to get those prepped soon. However, 8 tee went under water by about 6", so there is some serious drying that needs to take place on that one in the next week before we can work on it.
At this point I am tentatively looking at sometime during the week of May 20th to be able to get sod delivered to finish 2, 3, and 8 tees. After sodding, they will be playable in a matter of only a few days.
Once we get all the tees knocked off the list, we will move on with putting drainage in the bunkers we removed the sand from last fall before placing the new sand in them.
We are a solid 6-7 weeks behind where we were last year at this time. Golf season is upon us and the maintenance staff is swamped! Please be patient with us as we work our tails off in the next month to play catch up with the awful cards that mother nature dealt us this spring....
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| Hosing silt on 17 fairway |
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| Packing seed into 15 tee after final grading |
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| Collars are looking pretty rough, kind of like last year. The strip of bentgrass sod from last summer is doing quite well though! Perhaps its time we invest in a little more bentgrass sod..... |
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| Only had one lightning storm this year, but it was enough to get this one big cottonwood on the right side of hole 7 |
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| Finishing the last of the cartpath by 3 tee |
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| Working on the reshaped bunker beside 8 green |
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