No middle ground

This year has felt like one of weather extremes.  With all of the rain in early and mid-August, we were hoping for a change in the weather--and we got it.  Unfortunately, this may fall into the category of "be careful what you wish for."

We traded the wet weather we experienced during aerification for a long dry spell.  As of last Friday, we had gone 2 1/2 weeks without rain.  Getting aerification recovery, especially in the fairways, is extremely challenging when relying solely on the irrigation system.

As you can see below, we often end up with one area being too wet, and another spot close by, being too dry.  With fairway sprinklers spaced 80' apart, both mounds and swales fall within the coverage of one head.

Achieving uniform moisture with no rain is difficult.

To compound things, somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature that meteorological summer is supposed to have ended when we move from August to September.  We finished August a significant 2.25 degrees above average for the daily temperature, including a heat wave in the final week.  The first six days of September was no better, with another heat wave, record temperatures, and daily temperatures running nine degrees above average.

Labor Day typically means that it's time to bring the fans in--not this year.

At this point in the year it should probably come as no surprise that we are now seeing the weather pendulum swinging back one more time.  Rain started Friday evening, lasted through Saturday morning, and is coming down again on Sunday.  There's even concern that Florence could make land fall close by later this week.

As we often say, when viewed as a whole, 2018 may look like just an average year, but it's definitely been a wild ride from winter through summer.  Maybe fall will treat us better.  Maybe...