Heat and Humidity

The two most dreaded words for a Golf Course Superintendent. The recent weather pattern has brought us both heat and humidity. Turfgrass does not perform well under either of those conditions and when you combine the two it can become difficult to manage a golf course. Our greens are predominately made up of Poa Annua. Once temperatures hit the mid 80's Poa Annua shuts down. It's basically trying to die. Humidity brings in the stress of turfgrass diseases. Turf diseases flourish under high heat and humidity. While we experience these conditions you will see us out frequently syringing greens. You may see a decrease in Green Speed. We also have to be more aggressive with our fungicide program. As we prepare for the Member Member this weekend we will look at the weather closely to determine how far we push the greens. We don't want to push them to hard at this point in the season and risk their health for the remainder of the year.

I have received many question about the Greens at Pebble Beach during the US Open. Even though they never saw temperatures over 65 degrees during the Championship those greens experienced severe drought stress. The splotchy patches on the greens were a weak type of Poa Annua that was severely stressed due to lack of water and frequency of mowing and rolling. As several types of Poa Annua in their greens shut down other types of grasses were still growing. Thus causing a bumpy putting surface. If all the turf on a Green is not growing at the same rate it causes and uneven surface. This is the main reason our green are a little bumpy in the Spring. The different types of grass on our greens start growing in the Spring at different temperatures. Once soil temperatures become consistent our greens begin to become smoother and more consistent.