Course Update 7/31/20

The recent stretch of hot and dry weather has made it very difficult to keep the turf fully hydrated, and as a result we're seeing brown spots on the fairways.  Keep in mind the brown spots only indicate dry areas, not dead turf.  A natural defense mechanism for grass is to go semi-dormant which involves minimal top growth and a loss of green color.  The areas you're seeing brown out, normally occur when we have this kind of weather and will start to look better when the daytime high is below 85 degrees and there is more available soil moisture.  According to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh we haven't had a stretch of 90 degree days this long since 2012.  With July ending today, we also recorded our third month in a row of below average rainfall.  We currently sit at 5.5" below our average rainfall for May, June & July combined.

We've relied much more on the irrigation systems this year as compared to the previous three years, and we're watering fairways, and everything else, every night it doesn't rain.  We then handwater or run heads during the day as needed to keep the hot spots moist.  A normal irrigation cycle is 10 minutes per head, but we've increased that lately up to 15 minutes in many areas.  Any longer and the water can't soak into the soil.  It will runoff and puddle in the low areas where it creates a higher chance of disease due to the excess moisture, and create soft, mushy turf where balls plug.  The run time may not sound like a lot, but each irrigation head puts out 40-60 gallons per minute depending on the nozzle set used.  Our irrigation system has good coverage of all the playing surfaces, but even the most modern system will never replace a steady natural rainfall.  Adding to the challenge is the fairways and rough are grown on mostly heavy clay, with very little topsoil.  Lakes fairways are especially bad with clay and rocks near the surface, that's why you'll see more dry areas on that course.  Aerification and topdressing have helped improve the growing conditions, but it's going to take several more years until we really see an improvement.

This is Lakes #3 approach.  It was constructed on a rock outcropping with minimal topsoil.  The shallow rock absorbs heat and dries out the soil, which leads to brown areas.  Our regular aerification and sand topdressing program are slowly improving this area.

This represents a typical dry area on a fairway.  If you look close you can see little green circles in the brown spots.  Those green circles are old aerification holes where the turf is healthier from deeper roots and better water penetration.