The Second Thaw

The second thaw of the year is underway.  1.5" of rain this week and temperatures in the mid 50's have made for an extremely wet golf course.  Throughout the day the course has drained reasonably well considering the soil is still frozen in areas.



#2 fairway yesterday morning

#2 fairway this morning

This morning, greens #1, #9, #10, #12, #14, #15, #16 and #18 all had a little standing water on them.  Normally, I would've allowed the water to just soak in, however temperatures this evening are suppose to be dropping into the 20's.

After observing the slow rate of drainage this morning, I decided to remove the excess water off of the greens. Using the squeegees was not on option because the greens were too soft to walk on.

We came up with an alternative plan and rigged up a Wet Vac to an extension handle.  This set-up allowed us to easily reach the puddles and suck off the excess surface water without putting extra traffic on the greens.

Jose removing water off of the edge of  #16 green



The Wet Vac in action


Although we removed the surface water this afternoon, the upper layer of soil still remains extremely saturated.  I believe most of the moisture should move through the soil profile before the turf freezes late this evening.  Mother Nature is testing the turf early this year.