Time to play some defense...

For those that grow grass which is cut as low as 1/10", and has to endure a whole lot of traffic daily, we are in the midst of a stretch of nasty weather.  With the exception of the lower practice tee, all of the turf on the golf course is considered to be "cool-season" grass, and the temperatures outside are anything but cool right now.

Up until this point in the season, we have easily been able to push conditions without much concern.  Double mowing greens and rolling several days each week have been standard practice.  However, now it's time to back off--just a bit.  We will continue to mow greens each and every day at the same height of cut, but until the heat breaks, we won't add the additional stress of a second mow, or putting the roller on the greens.  Any mechanical injury caused at this time, will be very difficult for the turf to recover from.

What else do we do when the seven day forecast shows nothing but 90's with some really high humidity?   We definitely apply plant protectants preventatively to the greens, tees, and fairways.  This weather is perfect for some turf diseases like Pythium blight, which can do a whole lot of damage in a hurry.

Another real challenge now is water management on the golf course.  As a whole, we saw quite a bit of rain during the month of June.  However, 85% of that rain came in the first 10 days of the month, and things have been more "miss" than "hit" since then.  When relying on the irrigation system, we don't have the same coverage uniformity that rain provides.  With this really hot and sticky weather, too much water can be worse for the grass than too little water.

It was a cool spring, with many people asking, "When is it going to warm up?"  Hmm, perhaps we should be careful what we wish for!