Better than nothing, but only barely.

Well, for the first time in what seems like an eternity, it finally decided to rain on us yesterday.  Lightning, thunder, and periods of rain wetted the course.   Between two distinct waves of weather, we received about 0.35 inches of rain here on the property.  Points south received a fair bit more, but we were spared the 'sheets' of rain.  While it was a welcome suprise, it was simply not enough.

Good, steady midseason rains are good for a lot of reasons.  First and most obvious, a thorough wetting of the soil will bring back the brown, toasty areas, especially those where there are no sprinklers.  A look at the photo below shows a plug taken from the rough this morning, after yesterdays rain.  0.35 inches, while it seemed like a lot, was only enough to wet about the top three-quarters to one inch of soil. 



 The darker soil near the grass is the wet soil (sorry about the blurry pic) and the light brown soil from there down is completely bereft of moisture.  The un-irrigated areas on our course are in profound levels of dryness that only a few, steady, all-day soakers or good thunderstorms can fix at this point.  While we will see some temporary green-up, any long term hopes for lush rough aren't likely.

Another benefit of midseason rains is a thorough 'flushing' of the soil profile with good, clean rain water.  The water from 10-mile creek that we irrigate with contains certain impurities and characteristics that only a good rain can flush from the soil, ultimately resulting in healthier turf plants.  Unfortunately, this wimpy rain wasn't enough to do much about that.

The forecast doesn't look good for rain in the near future.  Until then, we will keep things as healthy as we can and hope for a little help from Mother Nature down the line.