Quite a stretch

That was one of the most brutal stretches of weather we have all seen here on MV. Dog days for sure. I have heard more times than I can remember "we never needed air conditioning on MV" or "we only get a few days of really hot weather". That stretch broke all time records for Providence, RI. It was unbearably humid for roughly 6 weeks straight. We may not have had peak high temps but it was really hot and just unpleasant for man, or beast and especially cool season turf. The disease pressure was through the roof and we saw active fungus many times. The picture below shows the tee which is sprayed conventionally holding up nicely. The rough at the beginning of the fairway which gets sprayed with the Bioject (natural bacteria that we brew and spray instead of synthetic fungicides) also doing well. And in between a swath of unprotected rough that looks as if it has an inch of snow on it. The white mycelium of the Dollar Spot fungus means it is active and spreading. After the mycelium goes away it leaves a bleached lesion on the leaf. if enough damage is done the grass will take on a tan hue. hopefully that will be the end of that weather and we can continue into cooler nights and the turf can begin to recover from all the damage. Maybe we can all turn off our air conditioners too.

active disease

Disease lesions

Speaking of damage. Our salt water intrusion was high again this summer and it shows by how slimy the soils are. Think of a pile of ice melt spilled on the driveway or the salt in your shaker. The salt builds up and then pulls moisture out of the air keeping the surface moist and soft. This means it is easier to take a divot and in some areas the turf will simply peel up from any aggressive cart traffic. Please use caution with carts and try to avoid excessive turning and driving around until we can flush the salts from the surface. I will apply a gypsum application which will help with the flush.

Small Tire skid

Large Tire skid

cart damage 8 fairway

The fairways may be soft making it easy to take divots. I can handle a few extra divots there. What tests my patience at the end of a tough summer is divots on greens. There is simply no reason to take a divot on a green. We had three in about a weeks time. Same person? There is no way of knowing who the culprit is unless someone tells us. Obviously they suck at putting and have anger management issues or simply have no clue how to play the game. I often say the etiquette of the game is gone. These episodes only reinforce that thinking. If you play with someone who does this please tell them how bad it is and let us know who they are so we can reinforce the message.

divot 5 green

divot 6 green

With the change to our schedule moving the club championship to september we lose the ability to do our normal greens aerification the day after Labor Day. We will however try to do a needle tine aerification a couple of times this fall. We may even vertical mow and topdress the greens so keep an eye on the schedule for some minor disruptions to the tee sheet over the next few weeks.

Pretty clouds