Water....Our Most Important Resource

The beginning of the week presented an opportunity to showcase the course to local MET PGA golf professionals.  The Club hosted the MET PGA Seniors Golf Tournament which took place Monday through Wednesday, and all feedback from the players was resoundingly positive.  Although aerification holes are still slow to close on greens, as is the case many area clubs find themselves in, the greens were rolling great and relatively true providing a fun yet challenging test of golf.

From a management standpoint, this was a big week in terms of our preventative crabgrass control.  As many of you I'm sure are familiar with, as temperatures warm the ever present nuisance that is crabgrass begins to rear it's ugly head.  Crabgrass begins germinating in late spring/early summer, and has the ability to persist strongly until temperatures begin to drop and repeated frosts render the annual dead.  This week we began making our preventative crabgrass herbicide sprays on fairways and tees.  The catch with this product is that it must make it's way into the soil, and the only way to do this is with water.  We try to time these applications with rain events, but if the rain is an insufficient amount we must supplement with the irrigation system.  While most people that see sprinklers running after receiving rain are left scratching their head, it is very important that enough water is applied to maximize the efficiency of the product.  So rest assured that it is not a prodigal use of water.  Although there is a stigma with watering on golf courses, water is to the golf course what the vascular system is to the body.  Without water we could not meet our operating standards, thus failing to provide excellent playing conditions.  To dispel or soften the stigma of water use, it's important to understand that water use is not one dimensional, it is used a number of ways for a number of different reasons.  So if you find yourself with a bit of free time and a dearth of reading material check out the link below, which provides some great insight into water use on golf courses.

Water and its many uses