Well now that Stampede is in the rear view mirror we can all take a breath. From what I could tell everyone had a great time. I feel like the course responded well to the break in weather and should have been playing fast with the drop in humidity. My team did exceptional and put in some long days to prepare the course for the event and I can't thank them enough for that.
It looks like the upcoming 5-7 days will be bringing us some extreme heat with no rain in sight. The fairways are starting to show signs of drought stress even though I have been watering them every night. This morning I began applying a wetting agent to select fairways in order to hold in moisture, and I will finish tomorrow morning. This will make the water I put out at night a lot more efficient, and with no rain in the forecast, we NEED efficient water. This, in turn, has a chance to make the fairways a little softer in these areas which I know is not desirable. If the result is unacceptable in my eyes then I have a different product that I can turn to. My goal will always be to provide a golf course that I would want to play on myself, but my number 1 must have will always be living turf.
With the heat that is about to set in, I feel it is a great time to bring up the subject of ball mark repair. The greens are now under a lot more stress and would really benefit from a higher percentage of correctly repaired ball marks. I have added a link to a video produced by the USGA on the proper technique. Please take a look and implement when you play your next round. Poor #3 and #12 are getting annihilated. I know that scalped plugs have been causing a lot of blemishes on the greens as well, and I believe that I have gotten to the bottom of that issue so those hopefully will be a thing of the past as well.
https://www.usga.org/videos/2013/03/05/usga-course-care-video--how-to-repair-ball-marks-2204995528001.html
Try and stay cool and hydrated out there these next couple of months. As always, stop me or Grant on the course anytime if you have any questions or concerns.
Brien
