Course Update; August 2014

The last weeks in July and the beginning of August have been great for all aspects of the golf course.  Relatively cool days have made golfing enjoyable and provided the staff with opportunities to push green speed, detail the course and keep up with mowing requirements.  After the spring and winter, the weather has been a blessing. 
The injured greens from the past winter seem to be getting less and less susceptible to the damage done by golfer traffic.  The 15th and 17th green, the worst greens coming out of winter, are handling the greater play demands very well.  The Men's Invitational did put the new bentgrass to the test but it stayed true and has recovered.  On the subject of the Invitational, the staff received many compliments from members about course conditions and would like to extend it's own gratitude towards the membership in terms of their patience and understanding in this most trying of years. 
A new practice has been performed on the greens over the past weeks and the staff has been very pleased with the results.  Brush Kits were installed on the walk behind green mowers in order to achieve a truer surface.  The brushes "lift" the turf up and the resulting cut removes more grass.  This practice of standing the turf up also removes more thatch within the turf canopy.  With less potential for thatch, the need for topdressing decreases (decreases, not stops) resulting in less surface disruption. 
The seasonally cool weather has left the golf course extremely GREEN.  Rarely do all the areas of the course show this type of color in late July and early August.  Ample rainfall has also attributed to this. 
One of the largest storm events in recent history hit the Detroit area on Monday, August 13th.  Meadowbrook received 2.4 inches of rain which was actually lucky.  A number of other areas received +4 inches of rainfall.  Nonetheless, the 2.4 inches here cancelled a Monday outing, closed the course until 12:00 the next day, washed out bunkers and effectively stopped all mowing practices except greens for two days.  While rare, Meadowbrook has received large amounts of rain like this in the past, particularly in the last 5-6 years.  The following slideshow depicts just what a heavy rain does to the course.