Cool and Dry

Irrigation is not a substitute for rain as you have noticed over the past month.  We've had .3" of rain for the entire month of August and there is nothing in the 10 day forecast.  We've enjoyed the cool down, but could use a good rain.  Obvious signs of poor irrigation coverage are everywhere.  Sometimes this shows up as wet areas where head spacing is such that we can't water a dry spot without watering a wet area.  We are working overtime to try and avoid this, but our 30+ year old irrigation system is showing it's age.  In addition to a few areas that get overdosed, many more don't get near enough if anything.  It's not good for zoysia to go into winter like this so we sure hope to get some relief before it gets cold.  For the roughs, there really is no point in seeding this fall if we stay this dry.  Seed is expensive and we can't get the aerator in the ground under current conditions.   We may just focus on seeding tee slopes and green surrounds where irrigation coverage is slightly better.  High traffic areas where carts come and go from fairways are harder than concrete and don't have enough irrigation coverage for an overseeding attempt to make sense to me.  

We are seeing big improvements in the happiness of bentgrass thanks to the cooler nights and lower humidity.  The good thing about no rain is that we can control exactly how much water the greens get.  It's a lot of work in a time when we are short staffed, but it's better for the greens and playability that we control the water.  

Bean and Lucy approve of the cooler weather

Connor got over 40,000 steps with the aerator

We call this mini core aeration.  Tiny holes just an 1" deep

Plugs are blown into a pile and then shoveled up

A few days later we did a light topdressing. We've tried to do this based
on growth rate which has been every 2-3 weeks roughly

Connor getting some more steps in brushing in the topdressing

Alan loading the topdresser