Sometimes I'm not sure it's worth taking time off with all the stuff that you return to. It looks like transition hit full force while I was gone and there are several factors that have contributed to this years transition causing the current course conditions. It isn't like this was totally unexpected though, as we discussed our transition concerns several times in our weekly staff meetings, golf committee and board of governors meetings. The breezy and cool days (windy nights) have been beautiful for golfing, but not so good for transition. The cooler temperatures in May and an extremely hot first week of June, followed by cooler temperatures again, has brought our transition concerns to a reality. Now add in a few other factors like trying to get decent irrigation coverage with an outdated 26 year old irrigation system, in the windy conditions we've had this year, and you can somewhat understand why transition has hit us so hard. You will also notice that the front nine (the wind holes) are transitioning harder then the less windy back nine. Now add in the fact that we were not able to water the course prior to our Fire Ant treatment and again on Monday because of the S.C. Edison (unplanned) power outage and that only added to the problem. Earlier, in anticipation of the upcoming transition concerns, we had started doing some spot aerification of transition areas to assist the Bermuda grass and show that we were on top of this, but we had to abandon that to do other priorities, like rebuilding the hazardous bunker steps, concreting cart paths and starting a new "road side mow" project where we will be hand edging cart paths along tee and green areas. However, as of today, we are going back to our spot aerification project in priority areas, as well as purchasing some fertilizer to boost these areas . Transition is always a challenge and this year will be even more so. Unfortunately, predicting an overall recovery time is impossible. Some areas will recover while other areas will be just beginning transition, which always gives the appearance of a longer overall transition. Although each year is different, we do go through this every year. Trust that all our efforts will be geared toward restoring the golf course in as short a time as possible.