26 Days Days And Counting!
As the title of this blogs states, we are a mere 26 days out from the Tour Championship presented by Coke- Cola. All of us in agronomy department are excited and pumped up about the coming weeks ahead. The crew have been working as hard as ever to produce a quality golf course for the top 30 golfers on tour. However, Mother Nature continues to test our agronomic ability -and I guess you could say - our patience. As was the case in July, this month has started out a wet one.Just today we had a severe pop-up storm drop over a inch and a quarter of rain on us in under a hour, causing all bunkers to wash and play be suspended for the day. To date we have received 59 inches of rain, and the 5 day forecast still has a chance for more precipitation.
Lack of sunlight and heat has also been a issue for the the MiniVerde greens at East Lake. Since proceeding with the graden process, we have only reached above 90 degrees for a mere two days.The lack of favorable growing conditions has forced us to reconsider our cultural practices leading up to the Tour Championship. Instead of Verticutting weekly we have implemented solid tine venting of the greens weekly. We believe this will be less stressful in some of the thin areas on the greens and will improve the ability of the greens to dry down, hence encouraging some new growth with the addition of some extra nutrient packages being applied.
All newly sodded zoysia tees and fairways are coming along nicely. We have continued to topdress and level new sod to provide a uniform look to blend with the existing Meyer zoysia grass in the fairways.
All green complex surrounds will be mowed with walking rotary mowers leading up to the Tour Championship, This is a new practice that we have implemented this year. We are hoping that the walk rotary mowers will limit the compaction and wear that our riding mowers can cause to the turf. In turn the healthier turf this should provide more of a challenge to the golfers if they miss the green.
Anybody that has been to the course are well aware that the construction of the corporate villages are stopping at nothing! The corporate city as we like to call it between 12 green and 17 green are nearing completion as well as the Executive Club at 16 green. A new addition this year will be The Chick-fil-A venue which will be located around 11 tee.
All Championship tees have been closed so they have time to recover and look perfect for the Championship and the chipping areas around the chipping green have been roped off.
Please check below for some photos and thanks for visiting our blog.
Lack of sunlight and heat has also been a issue for the the MiniVerde greens at East Lake. Since proceeding with the graden process, we have only reached above 90 degrees for a mere two days.The lack of favorable growing conditions has forced us to reconsider our cultural practices leading up to the Tour Championship. Instead of Verticutting weekly we have implemented solid tine venting of the greens weekly. We believe this will be less stressful in some of the thin areas on the greens and will improve the ability of the greens to dry down, hence encouraging some new growth with the addition of some extra nutrient packages being applied.
All newly sodded zoysia tees and fairways are coming along nicely. We have continued to topdress and level new sod to provide a uniform look to blend with the existing Meyer zoysia grass in the fairways.
All green complex surrounds will be mowed with walking rotary mowers leading up to the Tour Championship, This is a new practice that we have implemented this year. We are hoping that the walk rotary mowers will limit the compaction and wear that our riding mowers can cause to the turf. In turn the healthier turf this should provide more of a challenge to the golfers if they miss the green.
Anybody that has been to the course are well aware that the construction of the corporate villages are stopping at nothing! The corporate city as we like to call it between 12 green and 17 green are nearing completion as well as the Executive Club at 16 green. A new addition this year will be The Chick-fil-A venue which will be located around 11 tee.
All Championship tees have been closed so they have time to recover and look perfect for the Championship and the chipping areas around the chipping green have been roped off.
Please check below for some photos and thanks for visiting our blog.
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| 16 Pond full of debris |
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| Ricky trying to clean the lake at 10 |
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| Assistant superintendent Kyle Johnson fixing some washouts in bunkers |
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| One of the several washed bunkers |
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| And another. |
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| 15 Fairway |
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| Executive Club at 16 green |
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| Corporate suites around 14 green |
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| 12 Green surrounded by corporate village suites |
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| The dreaded 18th |
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| Corporate suites along 17 fairway |
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| Roped off chipping areas |
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| The driving range all fenced off |
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| A new addition this year - a bridge to 6 green |
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| Roped off tournament tees. |
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| A golfer's view down 17 fairway from the championship tees |
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