What was in that rain?

The same storm that knocked out our pumps (see previous post below) brought a lovely 0.6" of rain to the course Friday.  While the water was welcome, it did produce some remarkable growth on the golf course.  We had the entire golf course mowed and manicured friday leading into the weekend, and by Sunday the greens started to look more like tees!  Areas in the rough were as tall as 5 inches, and the fairways, which were mowed Saturday, were extremely shaggy.  I have never seen this type of growth in late July. 

The upside of this was a noticable greening of the course.  The downside is that the greens, rough, and tees were growing at an unbelievable pace.  Greens were slow, and the tall rough made for a huge mess to start the weeks mowing.  We are continuing to get large amounts of clippings from the greens each day, and we will have to ramp up the mowing to stay on top of the rough.  We have applied extra growth regulator to hopefully slow the growth rate on the greens and we will roll as long as temperatures and stress levels allow.  Please bear with us through this rare, late-season flush of growth.

Last week I volunteered on the grounds crew at Inverness for the US Senior Open.  They were battling the same thing.  While they were mowing and rolling at night and the morning, they were also seeing a tremendous amount of clippings in their buckets despite the extra mowing and extra growth regulator applications.

With the continuation of record hot temperatures, we are still in 'survival' mode.  Our goal is to get through the next couple of weeks with as much healthy turf as possible.  As long as it remains hot, we are limited in what we can do to keep the course firm and fast without compromising the health of our turf.

This rough immediately adjacent to #6 green, was thick and up to 5-6" tall.  US open rough has nothing on us!

The clippings off of #8 green, which is one of our smallest.  This pile of grass is 3-4 times more than we would normally expect from this green.  Hopefully our growth regulator will trim this back, but with continued moist, warm conditions, our course is like a growth chamber.

This is the rough next to #10 fairway on Monday.  The extra growth created an extra mess.