Ian!

Hello and welcome to The Greenkeeper!  Today is Thursday, September 29th and our region awaits the arrival of Ian. Ian made landfall yesterday afternoon on the southwest coast of Florida as a strong Category 4 Hurricane. My thoughts and prayers go out to so many friends and peers in Ian's path!

As of 11:00 pm last night Ian's remnants are expected to make their way across Florida then turn back inland and head for the Queen City as if running a post corner route. The good news is local meteorologists expect Ian, or what is left of Ian by the time it arrives to be mostly a rain event in our area. 

Courtesy Brad Panovich, WCNC

Now, we have seen more than our fair share of tropical induced systems pass across our region in recent years. In 2018 we endured Florence just before the U.S. Mid-Am and Michael a few weeks later just prior to Fall Member-Guest. And it was just two years ago we had four named storms (Sally, Beta, Delta, and Eta) with varying impacts to the golf course. 

I stated earlier the forecast is mostly rain and I'm hearing we can expect a total somewhere between three and five inches (75-125 mm). That is a lot of rain, but we are currently in our longest dry spell since late April into early May as the last recorded rainfall at CGC was sixteen days ago. The other aspect is this rain is expected over several days so the golf course should absorb a great deal of needed moisture before the ground becomes saturated and runoff begins to refill our irrigation reservoir. If you haven't noticed we remain about five feet below full pond dating back to our driest June in ten years. 

Rain Expected Next Few Days

I guess you could say if a tropical system was going to visit we are about as ready as one could be. Let's all be good scouts and get prepared. I hope the power and communication lines remain intact for everyone and Good Lord willing the cleanup afterwards won't be too daunting. 

In other news, we have several course improvement projects in the queue. I hinted at these in my last post and I've detailed them in the soon to be released Ross Report. What I can tell you is one of these projects will start next week! 

That's right, the bunker renovation will commence Tuesday, October 4 as the team from Golf Course Services, Inc. will be back on site as we make our way through the remaining 71 bunkers on property. Here's a link Click Here from last year highlighting the process for those needing a refresher.

Stay warm, stay dry and stay safe!

Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG 

Looking Ahead!

Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"!  Today is Thursday, September 8th and putting green aerification is in the books for 2022! We performed a hollow-core aerification with 1/2 inch diameter tines on a tight 1.5 x 1.3 inch spacing producing 73.8 holes per square foot. Considering we have 122,607 square feet of putting green surfaces, we created just over 9 million holes impacting just under ten percent (9.28%) of the surface area. 

In other words, this aerification was designed to impart maximum impact as we enter into a busy fall event schedule. The holes were back filled with soil amendments and nearly 50 tons of sand creating channels to help provide oxygen into the root zone and move water quickly from the surface down through the soil profile. Here is a great USGA Course Care Video illustrating the reasons why we aerify.

I like that! 😏 #CGCturf pic.twitter.com/G0b8HKSdEN

— Matthew Wharton (@CGCGreenkeeper) September 7, 2022

We managed a fortunate break with the weather this week too. Although Monday's rain dampened everyone's holiday golf, the 1.01" of off-and-on showers gave the golf course a much needed thorough soaking. It had been exactly one month (1.04" on Aug 5) since CGC had received that much rain and with the trees outcompeting turf this time of year it was really starting to show in parts of the rough. Also, with the rain moving through the region on Monday we managed to stay dry both days to get the job done. ;)

Now with aerification in the books, and the days getting noticeably shorter it is time to set our sights on fall, and winter. Next on our agenda will be fall preemergent herbicide applications. Each year we treat over 100 acres of Bermudagrass tees, fairways, and rough with preemergent herbicide to manage unwanted winter annual grasses - most notably annual bluegrass (Poa annua). In other words, this annual treatment is what keeps our dormant Bermudagrass canopy "clean", without it the winter playing surface would be dotted with little Poa plants. This process takes multiple days and we typically target our applications for the end of September.  

We have a few other projects on the horizon including some needed tree work, bunker renovations, and more designed to improve course conditions and ultimately your playing experience. I have outlined these in the upcoming Ross Report quarterly newsletter, so be sure and keep an eye out.

Football season is here, which means it truly is the best time of year to play golf at Carolina. Don't worry, the greens will heal before you know it. In the meantime, best of luck to Brett Boner and Hayes Brown as both players represent CGC in the 2022 U.S. Mid-Am at Erin Hills. Practice rounds are today and tomorrow and stroke play qualifying rounds are Saturday and Sunday. 

See you on the course,

Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG