The heat is on,I really do not know what is normal anymore.
We have been having a pretty good stretch of humid days this puts considerable disease pressure on the turf we typically spray the greens, tees, and fairways every 2 to 3 weeks for plant health but this weather will decrease the control that we get from the chemicals. Hot and humid weather is sometimes not a very good combination. At least we are not on the east coast the golf course over there are having some very serious issues.
I was able to needle tine or vent the greens this week. This was in my opinion extremely important to do. I always seem to see a flush a growth after this process, I believe this process releases trapped gasses and allows for the greens to breath, I contribute this too the flush. The green speed is also affected by this, I try to maintain the greens at or just above 11 feet but it is quite a challenge with this weather pattern as of today we are just above 10.5 feet on the stimpmeter all greens are very consistent at or near the same readings. this is just as important since you will not need to adjust from putting stroke from green to green.
I have been trying to maintain a firmer golf course this year by adjust my watering at night and doing more spot watering throughout the day as too reduce the wet spots around the golf course. Sometimes this is hard to do because with all the undulations in the fairways some irrigation heads may not be in the ideal place all the time. I do feel that the fairways are much firmer this year which should allow for some nice drives.
I have many stakes set around the golf course to move cart traffic. One thing that I noticed was that golf cars always seem to follow the same line right next to the stakes or arrows. Please try to not follow everyone tire tracks when you are playing this will help tremendously and will reduce to stress in these areas.
The fescue around the golf course has been sprayed and mowed again in the last 2 weeks. As of now we have cleaned out most of the weeds and a good percentage of the undesirable grasses in the plantings. There are some bare areas less then 1 acre of the 20 acres that were planted. I will be reseeding all the bare areas in mid august. I feel that the rest of the areas look pretty good the challenge will be to get this plants through this hot weather hoping that a disease called pythium will not set in. Once again, I am not fertilizing these seedings allowing the plants to develop on their own. We do not want to encourage excess growth more of a thin stand should be expected here. I am wanting this so that we do not have such a heavy turf stand that will not allow you too find your golf ball and also so that you may be able to recover from the hazard. All of the new fescue will be played as a hazard as in the est of the fescue around the golf course. I also do not expect to see much of a seed head this year.
I hope that you are enjoying the golf course
Thank you
Neil