The Hole Story

We always have our fingers crossed, hoping for good weather for fairway aerification.  The "Goldilocks" zone for us is good soil moisture, but not saturated conditions. If too dry, the turf will be stressed and quickly wilt; and if too wet, the plugs can't be proceesed, and cleanup is a mess.

For some reason, it just didn't come as a great shock that the weather was not amenable to our wishes, and the golf course became the bulls-eye for pop-up storm activity throughout the week, with several days of rain.

Sunday afternoon we had two localized storms hit us, putting down an inch of rain.  Due to how wet many of the holes would be, this limited the fairways we could aerify on Monday.  As the day progressed, we actually found ourselves making good progress by Monday afternoon, but in the midst of aerifying #1 we had another blast of rain, with a tsunami-like storm.  This was the first time we had a fairway completely open with plugs covering it when rain hit--what a mess!

Tuesday came and we aerified  a handful of small fairways, but due to the excessive moisture from the prior two days' rain, we could not grind the aerification plugs, instead having to remove them whole.  This is not ideal for several reasons.

Wednesday was finally a good weather day, and we took advantage of that.  However, we had to once again stop earlier than we'd like in the afternoon, as another round of rain was on the way--and we didn't want to risk a repeat of #1 fairway.  1.20" of rain came down Wednesday evening, and we were forced to raise the white flag for the week.

To summarize, we had precipitation on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  The rainfall totaled 3.20" for the week.When you take a step back and look at things from this perspective, we accomplished quite a bit.  We have four holes yet to be aerified, and they will be tackled as time (and weather) permits.

August 15!

What is so important about August 15?  Well, for grass-growers in the Mid-Atlantic Region, this traditionally was the "over the hump" date.  If your turf survived until this time, the odds were good that you were going to be okay.

However, over the past few years, August 15 has become something of an inside joke among golf course superintendents in the region, as it no longer is a solid indicator of stress relief for grass.  Last year, there was plenty of grass that made it until mid-August, but not mid-September.  According to NOAA, July, 2019 was (globally) the hottest month on record.  As we noted previously, locally, 27 out of 31 days were at, or above the average temperature last month.

For tired turf, relief is certainly not coming in the short-term:

Heat wave number five is here, and we will be aerifying fairways this week under some very challenging conditions.  August 15 may soon become a forgotten, meaningless date.  Perhaps the only good news is that the Laurel Creek Grounds staff never shies away from a good challenge!

Damp Sand? Not a problem...

For the past several years, each spring we have used the Dryject sand injection process on the greens.  As we've previously discussed, this unique piece of equipment allows us to place a large volume of sand at a deeper level in the soil profile than is possible with a conventional core aerifier.

To date, one of the constraints with Dryject was the need for the sand to be very dry to flow through the machine.  However, the company has now engineered a new sand hopper design which will allow moist sand to be used, and we were among the first to see it in action.

If you aren't in the business of managing fine turf, this may not seem like a big deal, but there are parts of the country where purchasing kiln dried sand is difficult, if not impossible.  Additionally, for those of us who purchase dry sand, keeping it completely dry is often a challenge.  (It's been known to rain on us during aerification...)

We always enjoy providing our nursery as a testing ground for John Paddock and the Dryject team.  The ability to use damp sand has the potential to be a game-changer, and dramatically increase the number of golf courses who can take advantage of this extremely beneficial process.

Conditions Due to Conditions

With July being the hottest month of the year, turf stress is common.  However, this past month was particularly memorable--and not in a good way.  For the month of July, 27 out of 31 days were at, or above the average temperature, with only four days being below the average high.  Rainfall was also excessive, totaling 8.10", which is 67% above average.

There are countless reasons why turf can struggle, but this formula is pretty straightforward:

High Soil Temps + Saturated Soil = Root Loss

Ideally, there is an equal amount of air and water in the soil pore spaces.  Any soil that is full of water--especially hot water--does not bode well for plant health.  As you can see below, from the sensors buried in the greens, during mid-July, we had soil temperatures as high as 96 degrees.

Water transfers heat much more effectively than air (which is why 65 degree air feels alright to us, but 65 degree water feels really cold).  When heavy rains hit this baking soil last month, root loss was significant.

Another factor is that Laurel Creek's greens are predominantly Poa Annua.  Due to its inherently short root system, this grass is already at a disadvantage when compared to Bentgrass in the summer.  The picture below shows the vast difference in roots between our Bentgrass greens nursery on the left, and a plug of Poa from a collar on the right.

Bentgrass versus Poa roots

To insure that there aren't other factors at play here, soil samples were taken from greens, tees and fairways, and examined by both Steve McDonald of Turfgrass Disease Solutions, and Rich Buckley of Rutgers Plant Diagnostic Laboratory.  They are in agreement that the primary cause of any turf decline is due to abiotic (non-living) stress.

Even just foot traffic from golfers can lead to thinning on weakened turf.

While Bentgrass tends to be more tolerant of summer heat than Poa, the tees and fairways are also showing signs of fatigue from the weather.

The left side of #15 fairway contends with a tremendous amount of runoff from the golf course and beyond.

At this point, it may seem somewhat ironic that while excess water has been a large contributor to the current situation, it is now necessary to water more often.  That is, with very little roots to draw moisture from the soil, allowing things to firm up will lead to turf loss.  Small amounts of water must be applied frequently to prevent the plants from wilting.

We have taken several steps to minimize turf damage.  In all of the fine turf areas, the application schedules for plant protectants have been tightened.  On the greens, we have made some other changes to further reduce plant stress, and protect the long-term health of the putting surfaces.  This includes backing off on double-mowing and rolling.

Additionally, we have installed less aggressive solid front rollers on the mowers.  While the mowers are set at the same height of cut, these rollers will have a higher effective height, leading to a smooth, but slower putting surface.

Hand mower with a smooth roller on the left, and grooved roller on the right.

We always try to plan for the worst and hope for the best.  However, it appears that the bar may have been raised on what the worst weather can be.  At times like this, there are many lessons to be learned, and changes to be made in the future.  Aerification is right around the corner, and Labor Day soon thereafter.  While that may not be a date that everyone looks forward to, it typically means better grass-growing weather, and improved conditions on the course--something we can all appreciate.