Rough Recovery

The prolonged hot, wet weather this year took its toll on area golf courses.  In many cases, no part of the course got hit harder than the primary rough.  Both Gray Leaf Spot disease, as well as mechanical injury from carts, maintenance equipment, and even feet, really thinned the turf.  In spots where we can limit traffic, we have aerified and seeded, with promising results.  However, it doesn't look as if we had much time in the "Goldilocks" just right temperature zone for seeding this year.

With nighttime low temperatures of 70 degrees just 10 days ago, we were hoping for some cooler nights to aid in seed establishment and recovery.  Well, once again Mother Nature showed her twisted sense of humor, leaving us with the old "be careful what you wish for" feeling.  This past Thursday night we were in the low 30's, with a solid frost on the golf course.

Seedlings in a primary rough area which was aerified and seeded.

Other areas will be sodded during the late fall and winter, with improved turf varieties that are more traffic tolerant, and disease resistant.  While it's typical for us to sod a few cart path ends in the off-season, it looks like there will be a much greater amount of area that needs to be addressed this year.

The walk-up behind #13 green took a beating this year.

On a positive note, the greens, tees and fairways made it through the year with minimal lasting damage.  With cool nights, the green speed increases as if by magic.  Now all we need is some prolonged dry weather, and you might actually start to get some roll...