Rain Rain Go Away

Mother Nature has given us plentiful moisture this month. Unfortunately, the rain is considerably more than we need. We received a heavy downpour this morning which added 1.1 inches of rain in a half hour. Our running total for the month of June is now at 10.4 inches. Average rainfall for the entire month is 4.5 inches. We have received a measurable amount of rain 19 of 23 days. Maintenance activities are restricted during wet periods and conditions on the course continue to decline with each rain.

Desperate times call for desperate measures: pictured below one of our employees walk- mows #1 fairway.

There are some positives to be observed in light of our situation. The irrigation system has not been used since the end of May which is a considerable savings of money. We are also lucky that we haven't received a single devastating storm and damage has been fairly limited. We have had one tree blown over, two trees hit by lightning, and several blown fuses and solenoids in the irrigation wiring. This tree, which was struck, is located to the left of the red tee on hole 3.

The bunkers are taking a majority of the storm damage. Tuesday afternoon we were able to make a good push and finally had all the bunkers in good condition for the first time in days... 16 hours later- devastation. Pictured below is the greenside bunker on #17. This morning's heavy downpour washed the sand completely off the faces exposing the drainage beneath. Once the rain stops, it will take days to repair this extensive damage throughout the bunkers.

This type of damage is not uncommon and is nothing our staff has not encountered before. All we need at this point is some dry weather and time. With the cooperation of Mother Nature and a lot of hard work we will have the course back in shape soon.