GREENS

LARGE MARGE IS ALWAYS IN CHARGE!

You may have heard me refer to "Large Marge" at some point. I sometimes use this affectionate term when referring to Mother Nature. No matter how well we plan ahead, Large Marge will ultimately decide what we do and when we do it. With a 9am shotgun on the schedule today the turf department had a busy morning planned in order to get all the jobs completed so that when the guests return to their home courses after the days event they might just brag to their fellow members about the great golf experience they had at Whitevale. But Large Marge had other ideas. She decided to send us just over 50mm (or better than 2 inches) rain in two different storm cells over about 3 hours. With the ground saturated, and puddles everywhere most of the planned jobs could not be completed. We can't cut greens as the soil and thatch swell up and become "puffy", trying to mow them would scalp many areas causing major damage. Holes can not be changed as the cups are full of water. Bunkers are puddled and require time to drain before we can remove debris, shovel up sand to fix wash outs and begin to rake them. We don't send out fairway or rough mowers as there is a safety issue with the potential of equipment sliding around and this equipment can cause significant damage to the soft ground. So what are we doing? First of all we have a meeting with staff reminding them of the potential hazards and dangers they all face with the slippery conditions. We also go over the potential damage that can be cause trying to get around the course under such wet conditions. They are instructed to keep the carts to the paved paths, and when they must leave the path to stay on the high areas avoiding driving through puddles always! The jobs that are assigned include divot filling, course clean up, repairs to gravel wash-outs on our maintenance road, line trimming under trees, weeding gardens, we can prune some branches, extra time is spent on ball mark repairs, we put out ropes and stakes to usher cart traffic around some of the wettest areas. We clean sand and gravel off cart paths. Any bunker that is not holding water we can begin shoveling up the washouts.

And we plan...........for tomorrows jobs!

Ever wonder what the valley looks like after 2 inches of rain?

But, no matter how bad we ever have it, there is ALWAYS someone who has it worse! Please click on the link below which will take you to the United States Green Association (USGA) web site and a story about a hail storm and what one course had to deal with. The pictures will shock you I'm sure!

USGA: What The ‘Hail’ Was That? - June 2010