Somehow July is already in the rear view mirror. The month was filled with hot and humid days and as the month progressed moisture levels diminished as we had gone without any significant precipitation since July 6th. From that point on we have received under 20mm putting pressure on the irrigation system, as well as our labour resources. Heavy watering overnight with our scheduled programs still necessitated addition overhead sprinkler times as well as significant hand watering to keep the areas that tend to suffer drought stress in good shape. All considered we managed quite well. A significant irrigation repair between 1 and 9 was needed, just after buttoning up 3 repairs on 12 fairway. It is typical for our system to show its age when so much water is being put out. We had to play a bit of catch up after a couple of days out of commission.
We are in the middle of club championship season. At the time of writing this post the senior and junior club championships have concluded and the Men's Championship this weekend. We are happy with the turf conditions we have provided. Hoping that the things remain dry throughout the week and into the weekend. In any case we should be better off than we were last year!
We are just now starting to have to touch up some hot spots on the greens, which means they are firming and speeding up. Congratulations to our champions and good luck to the competitors this weekend, as well as to those vying to dethrone Claira in the Women's Championship next weekend.
Moving into August our goals stay the same: providing a premium golf course to our membership. We will sneak in another sold tine aeration (did anyone notice the one we did in early July?) and stay on top of fungal pathogens that are ever present in untreated areas. Things will ramp up again toward the end of the month with the Men's Invitational where we will attempt to dry the greens out again and speed up the course. With August being the last month for the student portion of the maintenance team we will take advantage by putting more work into the bunkers. Lots of progress has been made to this point.
This week we had the first of hopefully many softball games. We challenged Mat, Curtis, and the rest of the team at New Ashburn. The weather gods decided to help take our minds off of our respective golf courses by raining for almost the entire duration of the game. A defensive contest remained scoreless until late in the game. A 7th inning home run by Ashburn tied the game at 2. In the bottom of the final inning our Crew Foreman Trent came through with the winning RBI and Oakfield took the contest 3-2. Thanks to the crew at Ashburn and special shout out to Callum Haughn for providing refreshments, taking on umpiring duties, and most importantly sending out good vibes as only he can that added to a great day. Until next time.
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