It has been a tough week in the world of golf course maintenance in Chautauqua County. Although we were very fortunate to avoid the significant accumulation of rain that the eastern part of the state received, the 3 days of rain we did get really put a halt to any routine maintenance.

I sent the entire crew home for 3 days this week to minimize any damage to the course. We were not even able to get around with our 4 wheel drive tractors to take care of some leaves. Even today after 1 1/2 days of no rain we are limited in what we can do. Greens and tees will be mowed this morning and leaf cleanup is taking place, but mowing rough, fairways and chopping leaves would leave the course in worse shape than when we started this morning. We may tackle one course of fairways this afternoon, but that will be a last minute decision.

I would like to have everything mowed for the weekend, which looks to be one of those spectacular October golf weekends that I enjoy so much. The course will be drier and firmer by Saturday and should provide some enjoyable conditions. Enjoy it while you can, snow is only a month away.

Leaves, leaves, leaves!!!

Fall is in full swing here in Chautuauqua County and that means hours daily being spent cleaning leaves off the course. We start off each day blowing off tees and greens then move to the fairways and rough. Once in the rough the leaves get ground up by our mowers and either left as mulch in the grass or, where possible, blown to the wood line to completely remove it from the turf.

October is one of my favorite golf times of the year. The turf is recovering from a tough summer, the leaves are beautiful, and there is a calmness in the air. How could it be better?

Due to both the busy golf schedule and the weather, the aerification schedule has changed.

Tee & Fairways - As weather allows.

Greens: Hill Course - September 21
Lake Course - September 27

Tee aerification has been postponed due to this weeks high temperatures. It is never a good idea to try to aerify during a hot, dry spell and I didn't feel the need to potentially harm perfectly healthy turf just to keep on a schedule. We will begin as soon as reasonable weather returns, which looks like next week with a low chance of rain and temperatures in the low to mid 70's.

The cooler weather has been nice for both my crew and the turf, although looking at some of my staff you would think it was low 40's instead of lower 60's this morning. A few of them had on their winter stocking caps.

The rough is once again greening up and any thin areas created earlier in the season in fairways are starting to fill in as well. Turf growth is once again picking up the pace which makes me feel better about the upcoming aerification season. See one of my earlier posts for aerification schedules.

Fall Aerification

It is often assumed by golfers and non golfers alike that the hardest of the work is over when the Chautauqua Season concludes in late August and Labor Day approaches. In reality, the busy season for the maintenance crew is just beginning.

The shorter days and cooler nights of late summer and fall are a time of recovery for the turf that has taken a beating throughout the summer months, especially in a year like 2010. In order to take advantage of this period, enhance recovery and prepare for next summer's stress we begin many procedures that, while not necessarily fun to play golf through, are a necessary part of our maintenance program. The most notable of course is fall aerification.

Ideally, aerification in WNY is done in the week or two before Labor Day. This allows for a quicker recovery period as opposed to waiting until the end of September when turf growth is slowing with the onset of frosty mornings.

In reality, however, the late August aerifying coincides with the last week of the Chautauqua season and some great golfing over Labor Day weekend. And since we have no desire to ruin the end of summer golf we wait as long as possible on the greens aerification putting it solidly in the middle of September, late enough to avoid some good golfing weather and early enough to still have some decent recovery time. Tee aerification is relatively low impact and we will be starting that shortly. Fairways aerification is a lengthy process and takes several days to complete. We try to sandwich that in greens aerification whenever we get some good weather.


Tentative dates for aerification are:

Tees - Week of 8/30

Fairways - Starting 9/7 as weather allows

Greens - Hill Course 9/14

Lake Course 9/21



If you are playing during or after these dates we apologize for the inconvenience but please keep in mind that it is for the good of the golf course and your golfing enjoyment next season.

A good article from the Wall Street Journal about the type of summer we are having. A nice read.

http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:golf_journal.html