Coastal Flood advisory...

Coastal Flood Advisory

Expires 11:00 AM EDT on October 23, 2014

Statement as of 6:02 am EDT on October 23, 2014

... Coastal Flood Advisory remains in effect until 11 am EDT this
morning... 

* location... Worcester County... mainly along the shorelines of 
Assawoman and Chincoteague bays and adjacent ocean inlets.

* Coastal flooding... minor flooding possible within 1 to 2 hours 
on either side of high tide this morning.

* levels... tidal departures will average around 1.5 ft above
normal during high tide this morning. At Ocean City... high tide
occurs at 738 am EDT. A peak water level of around 4.2 feet
MLLW is expected. Minor flooding begins at 4.0 feet MLLW.

Precautionary/preparedness actions... 

A coastal Flood Advisory indicates that onshore winds... tides and
/ or wave action will combine to create flooding of low areas
along the shore... and near tidal rivers and creeks. Be prepared
for the possibility of Road closures and minor flooding of
properties. If travel is necessary... do not attempt to drive
through water of unknown depth.

All tide heights are relative to mean lower low water.
Time of high total tides are approximate to the nearest hour.
Flood category based on total tide.

Ocean City Inlet MD
minor 4.0 ft, moderate 5.0 ft, severe 6.0 ft

                total astro
    day/time tide tide surge waves flood
                 /ft/ /ft/ /ft/ /ft/ category
   ---------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ----------
    23/08 am 4.2 2.6 1.6 5-6 minor
    23/08 PM 3.4 2.3 1.1 4 none
    24/08 am 3.3 2.6 0.8 3 none
    24/09 PM 2.8 2.2 0.6 2 none
    25/10 am 3.2 2.7 0.6 2 none
    25/10 PM 2.4 2.2 0.2 2 none

This was put out by the Natiomal Weather Serice this morning. The pictures were added to show some of the lowest points on the course where water is actually pushed back on us during these events. As you can see, #10/18, #11, and behind #3 green are some of these locations.

Wet, sloppy, messy...

Those are some of the words used to describe the current golf course conditions. Over the past couple of weeks, the course has received a substantial amount of rain.

Walk up areas to the tees can be slippery and unstable. This tee in particular gets limited sunlight at this time of the year due to the lower sun angle throughout the day and the abundance of trees. It receives less than an hour of sunlight per day.

When combined with the mucky soil structure of a marshland environment, drying of the soil becomes a definite issue for the turf. Coincidentally, the tides are running at their highest point of the year causing everything on the eastern shore to drain more slowly.

Seed is being applied now to help fill in some of these spots throughout the course. Tree work will continue throughout the winter to help alleviate some of the airflow and sunlight penetration issues.

Pea soup?

So, just how thick is pea soup?  

Does anyone eat pea soup?

As you can see, the fog is thick this morning. Occasionally, we have a fog roll in after sunrise.

The day must go on...

The maintenance staff will begin deep tining the fairways this week. It will not affect play. There is no mess to clean up since this process uses a solid tine. Typically, the next couple of months are good for turf recovery; let's hope this holds true for this year as well.

Rain/Storm...

Rain fell overnight on the course... Almost 2 inches of sideways rain...

The wind gusts reached about forty miles per hour... Yet we are out this morning mowing greens.

Most soils would remain saturated for a few days after an event like that, forcing mowing schedules to be altered. Since the greens have been rebuilt to a sand based soil mix, they drain quickly and efficiently, allowing maintenance to resume uninterrupted.

Irrigation or irritation...

Similar words, only different by a singular letter... Irrigation in these days and times is measured by ET rates and volumetric water content percentages. Knowing what is present in the soil is one thing but applying the water is a different story. Tonight, Jason and I are running around; popping on heads because the irrigation computer crashed at about 2:30 this afternoon.

Since some fertilizer was applied today, it needs to be watered in before our scheduled mowing tomorrow. 

It sure beats the old days of 'night irrigation' guys running around kicking on water cannons in the middle of the fairways! I must admit... I have grown accustomed to clicking the mouse on the irrigation computer at the end of the day and going home.

Beautiful August...

As a golf course superintendent I really did not think that those two words could be put together in a sentence let alone side by side...

But yet again, another beautiful morning here on the course. Overall, it has been a good summer for bentgrass growth. The poa annua has still shown its aversion to summertime. It was affected by a pesty little creature known as the annual bluegrass weevil. For the most part we have stayed in front of it with much scouting and some timely insecticide applications.

The ryegrass has stressed a bit while battling a disease called grey leaf spot but nothing like we have seen in the past.

With a few exceptions, the only areas throughout the course showing any signs of stress are the high traffic areas (whether from cart traffic on the fairways or foot traffic on the tees.)

Post aeration...

Here we are one week out from aerating greens, tees and approaches.

The greens are by no means at their pre aeration state but they are healing well and should be back to the smooth playing surface very soon.

The tees and approaches are almost healed. Sand top dressing was applied and broomed in this week. It should help to provide a firmer playing surface later this fall.

My favorite season...

It's one of my favorite times of the year again. It's football time in Tennessee!

You Vol fans out there will understand. Three more weeks 'til college football begins. Growing up in a college town, Saturdays in the fall became sacred at a very early age.

Aeration of the course begins next week. The sand top dressing is being delivered this week. The soil amendments are here and the staff is ready to get it done. Greens, tees and approaches will be the focus next week.

The fairways will get deep tine treatment later in the fall as temperatures continue to cool.

I realize core aeration is an inconvenience to the golfers but it is a crucial step in the overall health of the turf. Removing thatch and replacing it with sand will provide better playing conditions for the upcoming months.

Drip lines...

The drip line of a tree is defined as where water would roll off the outer edges of the limbs. In theory, the root mass of a tree is approximately the width or diameter of that drip line. Trees and turfgrass compete for nutrients and moisture from the soil and sunlight from the sky.

The only wilted spot on the 12th fairway is under the tree's drip line at about 200 yards out. This picture helps validate the fact that trees and turf are in competition with each other.

Blue green algae...

Blue green algae is a common problem on newer bentgrass greens.

It is a discoloration in the plant due to what is believed to be a release of a toxin by the algae that causes the chlorotic look of the plant. It is not deadly but is merely unsightly.

You will notice it in the shaded areas of the greens mainly in the morning hours. Chemical controls are being applied to suppress the algae and mask the effects. Again, let it be known that it does not kill the plant.

What a difference a month makes...

Remember this past winter and early spring??? Three words best describe it: Cold, wet, and cold, or wait maybe that's just two words... Anyway, replacing that this late spring and early summer are: dry, hot, and dry! June was a very dry month here at the course, recording a mere seven tenths of an inch of rainfall.

This requires irrigation to be run almost constantly. We water to capacity at night and then hit hot spots throughout the day.

Occasionally, this will require golfers to dodge a little shower even when the sun is shining especially on those windy days. Please bare with is during this minor inconvenience! All in all, the course is holding up well.

Also, be aware that carts may need to be restricted to path only a few days to give the turf a break.

Cart traffic...

It's that time of year again... As temperatures rise and the dew points continue to climb, cool season turf begins to show signs of stress. The good news is that the days are getting shorter since we have passed the summer solstice!

There is no doubt about it, cart traffic is a contributing factor to stress on cool season turf. Notice the turf fifty yards past the sign where cart traffic is consistently restricted; it has one less variable compared to the rest of the turf.

Here is another example on one of the older fairways. The green line across the fairway looks like it was caused by cloud cover but in fact it is the line where carts exit the fairway.

With all of this in mind, there may be a few days over the next couple of months that carts will be restricted to path only to give the turf a break and allow some recovery.

Crabgrass!!!

The worst enemy of our sprig trials in various fairways has begun to rear its ugly head...

Crabgrass is beginning to invade some of the areas that were sprigged with bermudagrass a few weeks back. We will continue to monitor and treat chemically over the next few weeks to tip the scale back in favor of the young sprigs.

Disease monitoring...

We use dots of paint to measure whether a spot is growing and active. This area may be something as minor as stress from a muffler. We will monitor over the next few days to see if it is spreading.

Sprigging trials...

You will notice some shaggy looking areas on #8,9,&14 fairways.

We are doing some planting trials on those fairways using the same variety of bermudagrass that was used on #5 approach.

The grass was planted in one direction and then crimped again in another direction. Then those spots were rolled the following day to ensure good soil contact. You will remember that the approach on #5 was sodded; for bigger areas it is more cost effective to sprig.

We will adjust our pre emerge programs and fertility schedule for these areas over the next few months. Play should not be affected and is actually encouraged in these spots. Cart traffic and foot traffic will help with the real world trial.

Latitude bermudagrass...

The Latitude Bermudagrass that was sodded on the fifth approach seems to have survived the long, hard winter fairly well. I am impressed with the consistency of green up and the lack of any patch diseases. 

It could be that the plants are still young and spring dead spot has not been able to come in yet. Looking at the latest research from VA Tech, we will change up our fertility practices a bit along with some fall fungicide applications and see if we can keep it clean. Overall, not a bad playing surface for the first of May following such a tough winter!!!

High tide...

Even at high tide this morning, the lowest basin on #11 still has about five inches to spare.

As you can see the pond is also at the same level.

The drainage along Hingham Lane definitely relieved the pressure on the dirch running along the left of hole 11.  Barring any major flooding rain events we should be able to contain most rainfalls.

Sunlight!

Sunlight is an essential part of photosynthesis. Turfgrass needs at least eight hours of it throughout the day to survive and thrive in a golf course growing environment.

This picture was taken on #7 at 0845 on 21Apr2014. We are about eight weeks from the summer solstice so the hours of sun are only going to get better as time goes on throughout the summer. This is about the amount of shade that will be on this green eight weeks after the solstice putting us well into August. Selective tree removal around the green complex to allow better sunlight penetration is a large focus of our off season program. This green should show much improvement over last year due to this selective removal yet the play of the hole remains unchanged.

Rolling greens...

Finally, we are able to get out and start grooming the greens. It has been such a slow start to the spring, we had to wait to see some growth before we could begin our actual maintenance of the putting surface. With the temperatures rising this week, we will be mowing and rolling on a more consistent basis. The greens will become smoother and smoother as time goes on and the daily maintenance continues.