This week at Sunset: 4-3-2017


 
#13- Augusta National GC



It was another busy week at Sunset for the maintenance staff. We are starting to get into a routine with mowing rough and all short-cut for the spring and summer months. As the temperatures climb and the Bermuda grass becomes more apparent we will mow fairways and tees more frequently than we did in the fall and winter months. The weather has been very mild with highs in the mid-80’s and overnights in the 60’s. We did receive half an inch of rain on Thursday night and by Friday morning it was hardly noticeable. However, the forecast this week is calling for some severe thunderstorms in our area and it looks like we are expecting to receive over an inch of rain by Thursday morning. As long as we don’t have a mess from the wind, we will be business as usual. The rain is certainly welcomed, but the other nasty stuff we could do without.


As I mentioned above, warmer weather means more mowing for us. We started mowing rough last week and we will constantly mow rough as much as we can. I generally like to mow the rough even if it was just mowed a day or two prior. Because we do not have a lot of rough to mow, I think we could easily mow all 18 holes at least twice a week, maybe 3 times if we aren’t interrupted by rain or equipment failures. We will be making adjustments with the rough and particularly on the 5-gang pull behind mower. I know the rough is known to get really thick and we will ensure the quality of cut is something that doesn’t slow your round of golf down. Also, it may not seem like it now, but with the threat of storms it’s very easy to get behind on mowing especially if there is a rainout.


ABAC Turf Students, Josh and Matt, spraying greens before storms roll in.
Also, now that the warmer temperatures are back, I am starting to address the
weak area on #3 green. I will be bumping up the nutrients on this weak area and any weak area throughout the golf course. I will be spraying “weak greens,” twice a week until we get a good stand of turf. I will also verticut these areas to encourage the stolons to grow. I don’t want to get too aggressive and disrupt the healing process and so with two applications a week of fertilizer and then followed up with verticutting in about a month we should see some improvement. I will say that these scabby areas as I like to call them have improved a lot since the cold snap. The reason this area has not done so well is that it did not fully recover last summer going into the fall. The overseed was able to mask a lot of it during the cooler months, but with the mild winter we had and also the freeze we had two weeks ago certainly did not help things. So, please bear with us as we bring this area back to normal.

Different stages of the new pumphouse.
The big project that I have really been looking forward to since I started is the addition of the new irrigation pump house. You probably have noticed the white building to the left of 1 fairway. It is not a snack building as some of you have asked. I’d like to thank Randy Knight and his guys for the work that they have done and will do. This will improve things tenfold on the golf course! It will also make me sleep better at night knowing I have a reliable irrigation system.

Many of you know that I work the Masters, and I was planning to work this year’s tournament. However, I will unfortunately not be working this week in Augusta. I hope to be back next year when I’m a little more settled. I just can’t be gone that long on that golf course when the weather (lack of rain) hasn’t been cooperating with us on our golf course. Also, my wife, Shannon, is in town this week for spring break and I hope a lot of you get to meet her.

Again, thank you for following us this week as we strive to get better every day. As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions/comments that you may have by using this blog, Facebook page, or emailing me at davisjoey@hotmail.com. Thanks for reading!


See you on the course!


Joey Davis


P.S.- Who will win this year's Masters? Dustin, Justin, Rory, Phil? or the field? I'm taking the field. 




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