Cold spring

As the calendar changed from March to April, someone forgot to tell Mother Nature. The temperatures have stayed below normal, and the threats of snow haven’t subsided. All of this has combined to keep the turf grass behind schedule.

As I write this, it is 23 degrees at the club. That is roughly 18 degrees below the normal April low temperature. Yesterdays high during the day never made it out of the 40’s, which is also about 20 degrees below normal. While there is a reprieve in sight, and we all know that summer will come, for now, the grass is lagging behind.

The Bermuda grass is most affected by the lingering cold temperatures. Bermuda grass is a warm-season grass, meaning it thrives in warm temperatures. It needs warm soil, warm days, and warm nights- none of which we have had. Our soil temperatures are hovering in the 40-degree range, which is about 10 degrees lower than the Bermuda grass would like it in order to start turning green. We have had a sporadic warm day and a few warm-ish evenings, but nothing consistent. The Bermuda grass needs the consistency to really break free from dormancy.

One indication of the slow start that spring has gotten off to, is through one of the websites we use to track Growing Degree Day (GDD), which measures the heat produced during an individual day. We use GDD’s for lots of things: PGR timing, seedhead control, pre-emergent weed control timing, and more. One aspect of this particular website is that it compares year to year GDD totals, and so far, we are 27 days’ worth of heat behind the same date in 2017. We have had almost a full month less of good growing weather so far in 2018. When it is presented like that, it is easy to see why the Bermuda grass is still dormant.

Now for the good news: there is green Bermuda grass on the golf course. We saw the very first green leaf back in the first week of March, but the cold temperatures sent that right back into hiding. However, in the last week we have found more. We have to be patient because we can’t control the weather. We also have to keep things in perspective and viewing this spring’s temperatures through the lens of GDD’s helps us to understand why it’s been a slow start.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please be patient with our spring debris cleanup process. Thank you

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Bunker etiquette

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org