A look back at May

Without question, the weather can often have the greatest impact on a golf course's condition, and this May's weather was no exception.  Unless you've been living in a cave for the past month, you know that the lack of rain has been dramatic, with unirrigated lawns looking like straw in early June.  

For the month of May, we received only 30% of the average rainfall.  The good news was that the high temperatures were not bad, and we actually ended the month exactly at average for daytime highs.  The other good (and bad) thing was that there was low humidity and breezy conditions most of the month, meaning little disease pressure to be concerned about on the turf.  However, while the low humidity felt comfortable, it also led to some extremely high moisture loss during this dry spell.

Severe mounding is challenging to maintain during periods of high moisture loss. 

While the daytime highs were average for the month, the nighttime low temperatures were not.  In May, we were four degrees below average at night--that is four degrees every night for an entire month.  Again, this is good for limiting any disease worries, but not great for recovering from aerification.  With the ability to quickly reflect temperature changes, the sand-based greens were especially impacted by these cool nights.

One night in the 30s and 19 nights in the 40s is quite unusual for May.

As dry as some areas of the course have been, it will take more than a few showers or thunderstorms to re-wet the soils.  The 2023 season is already off to an interesting start!