Golf Course Conditions

While the drought continues, a stretch of several muggy nighttime lows above upper 70’s and steamy afternoon highs well above 90 and even 100 degrees make the fourth of July week our greatest challenge to date as far as turf stress goes. While these weather conditions have been challenging for turfgrasses on the golf course, we have fortunately avoided the lethal combination of saturated soils and hot temperatures. Today looks to be the peak of this heat wave with highs predicted around 104. The accumulating days of heat stress without any nighttime relief is really taking a toll on our turf. On the surface things still look fairly good ( though certainly not firm and fast), but the root systems of our bentgrass greens, tees and fairways have declined considerably and are keeping the plants in a fragile state that demands conservative management. We raised the cutting height of the greens mowers again and we have been avoiding mowing all together on some days. We will be running cooling cycles with irrigation heads and handwatering cooling off the air and leaf blades of the plants to lower the temperature of the turf surface. The majority of our irrigation cycles will be performed during the morning so leaves are dry by nightfall when disease pressure is at its highest. These practices are an effort to minimize wet wilting and diseases. We appreciate the golfer cooperation while we quickly cool greens, tees and fairways during golf play. Our soil temperatures are well into the 70’s and low 80’s during the peak heat of the day. High soil temperatures cause shallow roots and an imbalance between photosynthesis and respiration which causes the plant to use up stored carbohydrates and the plant begins to decline. The most severe turf decline is high cart traffic areas (fairways entrances and exits). During the next few weeks we will ask the membership to limit cart traffic to a 90 degree cart rule and rough only until the weather breaks. Again we appreciate everybody's cooperation.

Next week looks much better....not cooler than average, but simply average for central Illinois July weather…highs in the upper 80s.