It's already wet out there...

Irrigating the day after an inch and three quarter rain??? Are you crazy?

I'm not going to answer that last one but I can explain syringing the greens after a rain event. USGA greens are built to flush. Think of them as a bowl... You fill up the bowl (through rain or irrigation) and once the head pressure reaches a certain point they will release the water through the internal drainage and out of the cavity through the outfalls. This will take nutrients out of the soil; some good and some bad. Within a few days after a flush, the good nutrients need to be replaced in the soil profile.

We apply a product that I call 'the kitchen sink.' It replaces many of the good nutrients that go out with the bad. The irrigation will help knock this product off the leaf and down into the canopy.

This is probably information overload at this point! Just know that I may still be a bit crazy but irrigating after a big rain event has some logic behind it.

'Singin in the rain...'

Poking in the rain is more like it! If you ever wonder about the weakest areas on the fairways...

Travel around in the rain or right after the rain and take notice of where the water is sitting on the surface. These puddled areas hold water and will boil in the heat or are more likely to get disease. 

In poking around some of these low lying areas yesterday, some small drain covers were uncovered. So during today's rain event, we sent out some of the guys to poke around and see what we could find.

 The next part of the equation is tracing the lines to find out where the water can exit. If we can locate a good exit point and the elevations work, we can clean the existing lines and/or add to them to pick up some of the surrounding low areas.