I think I might have been the only person smiling at the club today once the rain set in.  You couldn't have scripted a better week for the River greens renovation with perfectly dry sunny and windy conditions on Monday and Tuesday followed up with the same for some backup work on Thursday and then the rain started just as we washed down the fertiliser spreaders.  Only 5mm overnight and then backed up with 15 millimetres until 5:00 today which should settle the sand down into the profile and also a nice water in on the fertiliser that we got onto the greens and tees on the River course.  One of the best results we have had on a renovation especially over the past four years when it has rained virtually every time during the operation. 

On the Poa annua front we have now had exceptional success on the West practice green and 5 and 6W greens.  Some of the Poa  in the fairways is actually dying out naturally which is the first time that has happened over the past three summers as we have had so much rain that it has been able to survive throughout summer.  The fact that it fails so quickly is one of the reasons we can't afford to have it as any sort of a dominant grass. The photo below shows some of the fairway Poa dying out on 4 R fairway.

Poa ''melting'' out on 4R fairway.

Oh and the rain won't do the rest of the courses any harm either as we were really starting to dry out with the telltale signs of the drain line trenches being prominent and the water table dropping enough for the small dam on the corner of 5W to dry up earlier this week.