July is already the hottest month of the year, so when you have 21 days in that month that are above average, it shouldn't come as a surprise that our cool-season grass isn't going to be happy. The green which has seen the most thinning turf over this stretch has been the practice green at #1 tee.
For decades the USGA has said that building a new green without changing the environmental conditions is not a recipe for success. In the case of the driving range putting green, not only have the growing conditions not improved, but they have actually taken a couple of steps backwards.
As you may recall, we had a permanent fan for the old green, and with additional wetlands growth every year, there is even less air movement and morning sunlight than we used to have a few years ago. In hindsight, it was probably naive to think that just constructing a larger green would lead to healthy turf without the benefits that its predecessor enjoyed.
For now we are using our portable fan to provide air movement on the green, and have closed a portion of the green to help facilitate recovery. In the long run we clearly need to install the dedicated fan for this green, as well as try to do some selective pruning.
