The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay Golf Course Maintenance

Wood Duck box on #14 is supposed to be near
the water, not in it

We went from one record setting month to a record setting day.  As I mentioned in my last post we set a record in the month of August for being the driest month on record in Chattanooga.  Well, as fate would have it, we set a record on Monday for the most rainfall in Chattanooga in a 24 hour period.  Thanks to our good friend Tropical Storm Lee we received a total of 11.29 inches of rain over a 48 hour period with 8.92" of that coming on Monday alone.  I guess the next time I pray for rain I should be a little more specific about the amount.

The golf course really needed the rainfall but I don't think we needed it all at one time.  We lost a few trees which Mitch and Kevin took care of this morning.  It still amazes me that a 100+ foot tall tree can have a root ball this small, but I guess that is why it is on the ground and not still standing tall.  We have a lot of debris down around the course and will take the next few days cleaning this up once we can get our carts and blowers out onto the turfgrass without doing any damage to it.

#4 Greenside Bunker with Sand Mat Liner installed

Rains like this really go to prove that using the proper material in our bunkers can save us a ton of time and money in the long run.  The bunkers on the front nine that have were repaired last year and have the Sand Mat product in them held up great.  All we had to do was blow them out, rake them, and they are back ready for play.  I can't say the same for the ones one the back that we have yet to conquer but hopefully we will be able to get to them this winter.  One improvement at a time and we will continue to build a championship quality golf course.



#6 Greenside Bunker with Sand Mat Liner installed



#10 Greenside Bunker without Sand Mat Liner

I did realize something yesterday as I was cleaning up my office and clearing off my desk that I wondered if any other superintendents have realized.  I wound up with a very large stack of turfgrass industry magazines in a pile which I have accumulated over the summer.  Although each of the publications are very well written and have a ton of useful information in them as I found several of them still in their plastic mailing envelopes I realized that I read these magazines online before the printed copy even gets to my desk.  What a waste of paper and resources.  I feel kind of ashamed and am planning on calling all of the companies and telling them to eliminate my printed copy, but still send the electronic one.