June was not left out of summer this year
The last two weeks have been pretty special as summer has come on quickly. 14 out of the 24 days in June so far the temperature has clicked above 90 and two of those we were at 100 and 101 degrees. This is all without any kind of significant rain in the past month!
The thunderstorms were cruising north last night as we went to sleep again with no rain hitting the turf. We did however wake up this (Thursday) morning with close to a half inch in the gauge and clouds in the sky, a welcome relief to the past few weeks.
The pumphouse has been cranking water out each night and we are using all of our irrigation system to the greatest of its ability. Water consumption thanks to all of our recent irrigation renovations has drastically decreased while accuracy and consistency has gone way up. The results are great looking golf courses while your lawn has long entered dormancy.
The dry weather has allowed us to reduce mowing frequency and get a few more people on hoses to hit localized dry spots. Thankfully our wetting agent that gets injected as irrigation water goes out is helping keeps the turf looking and playing pretty consistent.
The last two weeks make it easy to see how great of a decision it was to run the new 2 wire system to holes 5 - 13 on the Manakin. Without that modification we would have been scrambling in this heat. There are only a few heads on each of the remaining holes (1-4 and 14-18) that are not working due to wire issues. Having to turn these heads on manually (especially one that throws water almost back to its own control box!) is a little less frustrating knowing that the 2 wire will be completed this winter.
The contrast of the unirrigated native areas is spectacular right now.
We have fought the good fight over here on 11 Manakin blue tee. New drainage and a little extra nutrients just can not compete with dense oak tree shade. This bermuda needs a good 10 hours of sun, especially for a heavily trafficked tee area. This tree will be relocated (in a smaller form) and traded out for sod early next week.
Work continues slowly in the new breakroom. Everything is painted, the cabinets are in and Steve's team hung the televisions today. Dominion is not able to power up these new buildings until July 8th so the hope is that there will not be much left to do by then!