Friday, June 6, 2014

North Carolina Amateur Week - Day 5

Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"!  Today is Friday, June 6th and Day 5 of North Carolina Amateur Week.  This morning I toured the course before the crew arrived at 5:00 am, and enjoyed the fresh air and 67 F temperature (more comfortable than yesterday).  Knowing we had the makings of a perfect day I was excited and felt refreshed...plus I had my coffee! 

 At this point the guys know what they are supposed to do, but jobs were still posted on the board.  We took to the course at precisely 5:30 am for the morning setup.  Like the previous two days, greens were mowed and rolled (soil moisture readings were taken and water applied by hand only where necessary), dew removed from fairways, teeing grounds walk mowed, bunkers smoothed and hand raked, etc.  Sidebar: for those members wondering why I would allow this golf course to yield a competitive record 62 yesterday, we physically cut the daily hole locations and place the tee markers, but the placement of each is chosen by the Carolinas Golf Association.  The North Carolina Amateur is a CGA Championship.

 During our morning setup I managed to pause long enough to capture an image of the 12th green I thought was appealing.  As the shortest hole on the course it often gets overlooked, plus I love the way this hole looks in low light!
Breakfast this morning was courtesy of Rick Henderson with Greenville Turf and Tractor.  Rick and I attended Virginia Tech together in the late 90's and have been friends ever since.  I want to thank him for being a part of our special week, it means a lot to me!

 I put just a small amount of water on the course last night, not too much as I didn't want to take the "fire" out of these firm, fast fairways.  Today's weather was considerably more comfortable with lower humidity, but with an extremely high UV index.  The golf course played firmer and faster than the first round but still yielded good scores to those deserved.  Joshua Martin of Pinehurst is now the 36 hole leader at ten under par after shooting one of three 65's today (low round of the day).  Carter Jenkins of Raleigh and Jeff Krieger from Arden were the others.  Jenkins is currently T4 at -7 and Krieger sits T11 at -4.  Yesterday's first round leader Bailey Patrick, Jr. of Charlotte is one stroke off Martin's pace at -9 after an even par round 71 today.  Greensboro's Scott Harvey is also one back as he followed yesterday's 66 with a solid round of four under par 67 today.  Trevor Cone of Concord and Charlotte's Jim Pearson also sit T4 at seven under par.  The 36 hole cut fell at 145 (+3).  Below is the link to the official web page with all this and more.

 Official 2014 North Carolina Amateur Championship Web Page

Following dinner evening prep went very smoothly, as the crew is now dialed in.  Tees walk mowed at 0.325" (9-3 direction).  Approaches, surrounds, and par 3 fairways triplexed at 0.375" (10-4 direction).  Fairways were mowed at 0.475" in a clockwise "shadow" cut.  
The driving range tee had divots removed and filled, filled divots on all tees, bunker faces were hover mowed, pond and creek banks hover mowed, collected soil moisture readings on all greens, hand watered where necessary, and collected firmness readings.

 Spirits are still high among the crew, and that's a good thing as we still have the entire weekend to go.  That's all for now.

 See you on the course,

 Matthew Wharton
Golf Course Superintendent

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