Dry weather

How dry is it?

It has been very dry over the last several weeks. An occasional spat of rain has come through, but nothing appreciable. We have been maintaining areas throughout the course on irrigation alone. However, irrigation is not a replacement for rain. Irrigation is meant as a means to get from one rain event to the next.

You can see the faint outline of the old cart path on #3

Using general numbers that can be found online, our area receives about 4” of rain in July, another 4” of rain in August, and 4.5” of rain in September. July and August were both under half of our average rainfall totals. So far, we have not received any rain in September and the forecast is expected to stay very dry.

So, what does this mean for the turf? First, as it gets progressively drier, areas under trees and areas where there is no irrigation go completely brown and dormant. As the dry trend goes longer these brown, dry areas begin to get larger. We expend our resources- time, money, labor- on keeping “down the center” healthy. This means that we focus on the tees, fairways, and greens. The greens are the top priority and take up the most resources. We spend many hours with a hose hitting the driest areas.

You will also see that there are many areas of Bermuda grass that are turning brown. This is a clear cut sign of how dry it is. Bermuda grass is especially adapted to warm weather, but even it needs some water. We currently only sparingly water the fairways to conserve water for other needs. The beauty of the Bermuda grass is that it will bounce right back as soon as we get rain.

Large area of brown Bermuda grass on 18 fairway

We have to monitor the level of water in our irrigation pond near #17 as well. We have a limited amount of water available before we have to rent a pump and pump water from the river to recharge our supply. We have already had to pump once in August and it looks as though we will have to pump one more time still. This is another benefit of having Bermuda grass. If we were constantly running irrigation on the fairways we would run out of water much faster. Over a dry period like we are currently experiencing, we may have to pump water for a month or longer, which would become very expensive.

We have worked very hard to maintain the course in a very playable condition. Enjoy the extra roll in the fairways and firm greens.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not hit into the Grounds department staff because it is dangerous. Please be sure that we see you before hitting your shot.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org