Another dry June

The last month has been dry. Last year was dry through this stretch of the season as well. The difference this year though has been how hot it has been also. The two factors combined have led to the very droughty conditions on the course.

Since June 13^th we have had 14 days of 90+ degrees, including a stretch of 7 in a row. On top of that, we also had several upper 80-degree days with low humidity and wind. All these conditions are very conducive to the loss of water. Coupled with no rain and the course gets very dry.

Water is lost from the soil by evaporation and the plant loses water though transpiration, which is its way of cooling itself. We have a fancy metric for this called evapotranspiration, or ET, which helps us calibrate how much water the plant lost and how much we need to replace to keep it alive and healthy. Generally, cool season turf- the grass that is in the rough and on the greens- needs about 60% replacement of ET to stay alive and between 60-80% replacement to be healthy. Several of the days over the last month have had an ET loss of .25” and a handful were .3”. This means that even to replace at 60% we would need to apply about .15” of water, or the equivalent of running every sprinkler for 15-20 minutes each! Every day!

Obviously, we can’t do that: 1. We would run out of water in about a week; 2. Not every single plant needs exactly that much water returned- some plants with stronger roots can last longer than others;   3. Running the sprinklers that much would cause extremely wet areas. So we strategically run certain sprinklers. Or we use hoses to spot water specific areas. Nevertheless, inconsistencies are unavoidable. Areas will get too wet, other areas will get too dry.

None of this considers the Bermuda grass either. Although the water requirements of the Bermuda grass are much lower, it is not invincible, and needs water too. The dry tee surfaces, and localized spots in fairways are an indication of how dry even the Bermuda grass has gotten.

No irrigation system is a replacement for rain. No system can evenly water a course the way rain can cover the property. However, an old system such as ours can show even more inconsistencies across the course and a stretch of weather like we are in right now makes that even more apparent.

 

 

 

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please do not apply any spray sunscreen or insect repellent while standing on the grass, especially the greens. The chemicals kill the turf.

 

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

Golf Cart tips

 

 

 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org