About 16 days ago, golf course operations were coming together and I felt we were getting dialed in on the water management of the greens. There were not a tremendous amount of dry spots and staff was able to effectively manage them with daily hand watering that was not taxing our hours. If that routine could be maintained where the water lost during the day was replaced with the irrigation system each night and hand watering done only where inconsistencies in the system occurred, then I felt the greens would be firmer and smoother and play better if the correct ball speed could be achieved. The first lesson was to think that all contingencies had been considered.
On the night of June 2nd, the pump station faulted during the nightly operation and shut down leaving the greens without irrigation. Not a problem as we increased our hand watering the following day and no harm was done. On the night of the 3rd after changing the program a little, the same fault occurred. Now it's Saturday morning and a big deal especially when one of the staff called in sick leaving us short handed. But the greens were checked and hand watered and appeared to be holding their own. That afternoon turned scorching hot and hand watering could not keep up. The irrigation faulted again that night but this time the programs had been changed wholesale so the greens did water before the fault occurred. The greens were additionally hand watered Sunday morning and were being done so again that afternoon when the station quit working automatically altogether. The pump station technician was consulted and the station was switched to manual control where it has operated since. In retrospect, on Saturday morning I should have cut back on our routine making it possible to not only hand water but also run the irrigation system making up for faulting during the night but I was trying to deliver the expected even in impossible situations. Second lesson was that you have to know when to fold and cut your losses.
In the last two weeks with manual operation of the pump station, the greens have slowly been rehydrated to correct levels. On manual it has to be a basic program and that has slowed the recovery. Another factor is that greens daily and tees once a week are the only areas being irrigated. The program to irrigate around the greens takes to long to run during the day and interferes too much with routine maintenance. But that is exactly the program that would help several greens surrounded by trees such as #4, 10, 13, and 17. We know those have tree roots in the greens and normally we try to run the heads around the greens during dry spells to satisfy the trees and keep them from robbing too much moisture out of the greens. In the absence of that program, hand watering has been increased. The biggest help to greens recovery has been the rainfall albeit a small amount to this point (.30). Because of the high bicarbonates in our irrigation water, the longer it has to be the sole source of water, the less effective it becomes. From the 25th of May until June 17th there was only .1 inches of precipitation. Even the .06 received on the 14th started to invigorate the turf. Third lesson is to remember that Mother Nature has the biggest stick.
The fourth lesson came as I was originally writing this blog on Saturday. I got interrupted by a storm, so I saved it with the intent of coming back and finishing it. Unfortunately I was not savvy enough to get back into the saved document without outside help (my wife) and it is now Wednesday evening. If it can go wrong with technology it probably will especially when you do not want it to.
The last lesson learned from our pump station faulting was that the course is being over watered. The fairways and rough went nearly two weeks from the last time we irrigated them until it rained last weekend. The fairways were showing some stress in three areas and we ran the heads just in those locations but otherwise the turf has become absolutely wonderful. The rough did go off color somewhat and has stopped growing so fast but it has become playable. Both areas have greened up since the weekend rain and you would be hard pressed to know they had gone two weeks without water. Additionally, the bunkers were beautiful during this period without the irrigation system hitting the sand. It whitened up and raked much better.
None of these lessons are new and earth shattering. Sometimes in the heat of battle the goal of winning the war gets lost. On a golf course producing the best playing conditions for maximum golfer satisfaction (winning the war) does not entail lush, dark green turf growing at breakneck speed. It is producing a turf that is only moderately growing with decent color on ground that is firm underfoot. Last winter I talked about reading "Practical Greenkeeping" and the last two weeks have reinforced the message from that book. Let the turf do its own thing, just try to help it when it needs it, but never try to force it to do anything. The pump station is supposed to be fixed tomorrow and I will be working hard to change the irrigation schedules to keep the conditions of the last few weeks. See you on the course.
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