Battling kyllinga...

Kyllinga is a grassy weed from the sedge family. It thrives in warm, moist climates and poorly drained soils. It has a rhizomatous and stoloniferous growth habit. These stolons and rhizomes will intertwine and create thick mats that will choke out the competing and more desirable turf.

The maintenance staff will apply multiple applications of a selective herbicide at a low rate throughout the growing season to keep this invasive weed from gaining a stronghold in our fairways, approaches and tees.

You may notice some discolored spots around the golf course over the next few weeks as we are making these applications to keep this pesky weed out of our playing surfaces.

Welcome Back!

It has been a while since my last post! A lot has happened since then... If you haven't been out to the course lately, you are missing a treat. 

This week, your maintenance staff has begun to recapture some fairway space that has disappeared over that past decade.

Various areas were cut out to the irrigation line where it was originally installed along the edge of the fairway. These areas were then seeded with rye grass. The turf density will continue to thicken this fall and by next spring, the playing surface should be pretty good.

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.