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!