Course closure

We have had a string of terrible weather lately. It appears that this might be the first year on record that we have not had to turn on the well for irrigation water. Saturday with the two afternoon thundershowers, followed by sunny, hot, humid weather is the worst weather for bentgrass in this area. Currently the greens look OK and are holding their own. The collars are struggling in some areas on the interior holes but that is expected with the wet weather and the new greens (new collars usually struggle for the first year or so after a rebuild). We are in complete defense mode right now. The height of cut on the greens was raised, fungicide intervals have been shortened, Subair is being used to help the drying process, and we put some holes in the greens to help them breathe through all this wet weather. Like I said, they are doing OK now, but this next week will be a turning point in the year with the forecasted temperatures. We need everyone to remember that these greens are still babies (a 10 month old) and need to be treated as such through the most stressful parts of the year. Our goal should be to do everything in our power to survive and remain healthy through this first year, then we can try to get into some consistency once the greens are fully matured.

We will be closing this Tuesday and Thursday when the forecasted highs are in the high 90's and more importantly, the forecasted lows are around 80. Anytime these lows are this warm, the plant never has a chance to recover from the stress of the day. All the rainfall has really softened up the greens making them extremely susceptible to decline from foot traffic. Friday's temperature is a little higher than Tuesday and Thursday, but barring any more rain, we should be a little dryer by the time we get to that point.

It needs to be communicated that we are not closing due to current problems, but instead to help prevent future problems. Anything we can do to eliminate traffic on wet greens during the hottest times of the year will greatly benefit these new greens.

We have to remember that these greens had a slow grow-in due to the miserable winter and the cold March that we had. We were able to open on time but it was stated that if we get into some bad weather patterns we may have to limit the amount of play – I think we are at that time and could protect our investment by closing a couple of days.

We're almost out of the woods and the greens are maturing nicely…looking forward to this fall!