Letter to Membership

Dear Member:

If you have followed my online blog (whippoorwillgrounds@blogspot.com) you have seen the updates not only from the USGA, but even a Wall Street Journal article on the record breaking weather and wide spread turf loss up and down the east coast.  While Whippoorwill has fared better than many we still have gotten “dinged up” in certain areas.

The Grounds staff has started the process of renovating and seeding areas that have fallen victim to drought stress, disease and heat stress.

    The fairways have been solid tine aerified and seeded with Bentgrass.  Areas that consist of mostly Poa, and that have suffered most from the heat, will be core aerified and will receive additional seed.

    Collars and approaches have been aerified seeded and fertilized.

    Tees will be aerified and seeded starting next week.

    Areas through out the rough have been or will be aerovated, seeded, and fertilized.  This will be an ongoing process over the next several weeks.

On maintenance days, because of the high temperatures, we had to be less aggressive with our practices.  The Greens were needle tined, (a venting process using quarter inch tines which penetrate about six inches deep) topdressed lightly and rolled.  The tentative plan is to do our regular Core Aeration along with a Drill and Fill (outside contractors using the drill & fill machine with which soil is removed and filled with sand to a depth of twelve inches) after closing day at the end of October.

I would like to thank the Membership for their patience especially on the weekends.  When the soil temperatures get as high as they have this summer one of the most critical aspects of the operation is water management.  Hand watering is done multiple times throughout the day to relieve heat stress and to syringe the Turf.  This is done lightly multiple times because too much moisture can lead to disease and turf failure.  On some of the extremely hot low humidity days the staff frantically tries to keep the Greens alive and play does get disrupted for a few minutes while staff members syringe a green.

Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate with the work being done and a great Fall Season of Golf will be had by all.  If you should have any questions I can be reached in the shop (914) 273-3755 or via email pgntr@verizon.net.

Sincerely,

Paul Gonzalez, CGCS

USGA Update

Link

Ball Mark Repair

Each white dot in the picture is a ball mark that has been plugged out and filled with a sand and seed mixture.

Fairway Aerification

The Fairways were Aerified this week by an outside contractor.  The fairways will be seeded using a drop spreader borrowed from Rolling Hills CC and fertilized. 

Wall Street Journal Article

The Ugly Summer of 2010
LINK