I'm a little late in writing the May course update but better late than never. May started off nicely with good weather and just enough rain. New seasonal employees continued to come on-board, and my assistant and I spent most of our time getting the new staff trained on various mowing and course set up jobs.
May is the first good month for growing turf in Oklahoma. Air and soil temperatures rise and become favorable for steady growth. The temperatures and moisture are especially ideal for the Bentgrass on our putting greens. As the turf grows more aggressively, we begin to implement cultural practices such as: verticutting, topdressing and grooming. These practices remove troublesome thatch and improve putting quality. The warmer temperatures also mean that the Bermuda has fully woken up and needs it's first big meal of the season. The grounds staff went out in mid-May with a course wide granular fertilizer application. This fertilizer allowed the Bermuda to fully thicken up and quickly improved the overall quality of the playing surfaces. Each month, throughout the growing season, the Bermuda will be fed with various amounts of fertilizer to sustain quality turf.
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| Close up of Vcut on greens |
The temperatures and consistent rainfall, during May, are ideal for the Tall Fescue, in our native areas, and this year was no exception. As you can see from the picture of #8 below, it has been a great year thus far for our native areas. These areas will be cut during June to discourage summer annual, and woody weeds, such as sumac, thistle, ragweed, and various trees.
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| Close up of topdressing |
The latter half of May was very wet. Multiple rainstorms kept the soil saturated and the grounds staff was unable to keep up with our mowing schedule. For almost two weeks, the fairways were unable to be cut. However, the staff stayed busy, during the stormy weather by repairing bunkers, edging sprinkler heads, edging drainage basins, and string trimming throughout the golf course. The last few days of May were dry and the staff, through their hard work and diligence, was able to catch up on mowing just in time for Memorial Day weekend.
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| Heavy topdressing smooths and firms the surface |
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