The Ugly Summer of 2010

Brutal heat has greenkeepers fighting to save their courses from ruin

The sustained record-breaking heat across much of the U.S. this summer, combined with high humidity and occasional heavy rain, is killing the greens on many golf courses. A handful of high-profile courses have already had to close, and if the heat continues, others are likely to follow. Golfers themselves deserve part of the blame for insisting that putting surfaces be mown short and fast even in weather conditions in which such practices are almost certain to ruin them.

Huntingdon Valley Country Club outside Philadelphia, which dates from 1897, shut two of its three nines two weeks ago because of serious turf disease caused by the hot, wet weather. The Philadelphia area in July had 17 days of 90-degree-plus weather, six more than average, mixed with flooding thunderstorms of up to 4 inches.

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Members at the Golf Club at Cuscowilla, east of Atlanta, received letters this week that the club's highly regarded Ben Crenshaw-Bill Coore course would be closed for eight to 10 weeks so that the wilted greens can be completely replanted. The Ansley Golf Club broke similar news to members about the club's in-town Atlanta course. "The continued, excessive heat and humidity have put our greens into a critical situation and the possibility of saving many of them is remote," said a letter from the grounds-committee chairman. Even Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y., the site of five U.S. Opens, is having serious weather-related problems with its turf.

The U.S. Golf Association last week issued a special "turf-loss advisory" to courses in the Mid-Atlantic states, urgently advising greenkeepers to institute "defensive maintenance and management programs" until the weather crisis ends. Most of the danger is to greens planted in creeping bentgrass and annual bluegrass (also known as poa annua).

"Physiologically, these are cool-season grasses that do very well when the air temperature is 60 to 75 degrees," said Clark Throssell, director of research for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. "They can cope with a few days of 90-degree weather every summer, but when that kind of heat lasts for days at a time, they have extreme difficulty."

Temperatures for weather reports are measured in the shade, but greens baking in the midday sun can reach 120 or 130 degrees. When grass spends too much time in soil that hot, it starts to thin out, turn yellow and wither. Most bentgrass strains will collapse entirely with prolonged exposure to 106-degree soil. The grass doesn't go dormant—it dies.

Grass does have a mechanism to cool itself. It's called evapotranspiration and is analogous to perspiration. The roots draw up water from the soil and it evaporates through the plant's leaves, dissipating heat. But when greens are scalped to a quarter-inch, an eighth of an inch and even shorter, the leaf surface available for transpiration declines.

Prolonged heat causes other problems. One is that root systems shrink, sometimes to within a half-inch of the surface, reducing the amount of water drawn up to the top. Humidity and heavy rain make things even worse. Humidity retards evaporation, while soggy soil stays hot longer than dry soil does. Puddles and saturated soil also create barriers that prevent needed oxygen from getting to the roots.

Even when the combination of these factors doesn't kill bentgrass and poa annua greens outright, it weakens the turf significantly and renders greens more susceptible to fungus and disease.

Bermuda grass, by contrast, thrives in temperatures in the 80s and 90s but cannot survive cold winters. That makes Bermuda the logical choice for courses in the Deep South. High-prestige clubs in the so-called transition zone, which includes parts of Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Texas and the Midwest, have long put a premium on having bentgrass greens because of Bermuda's historic liabilities as a putting surface. Bermuda greens were coarser, bumpier and had problems with excessive "grain," caused by the bristly blades growing in one direction (generally toward the setting sun) instead of vertically and thus unduly influencing the speed and direction of putts. Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, claims to be the first course south of the Mason-Dixon line to install bentgrass greens, in 1936. Hundreds of clubs have followed since.

But they pay the price, even in years with less brutal summers than this one. Colonial, for instance, has five or six fans around every green, stirring up 25-mile-per-hour breezes around the clock to help keep the greens cool. The club in summer has four full-time employees who do nothing but hand-water the hot spots on the greens every day. "Keeping the greens alive till that first cool spell in September is all we hope for," said the club's head pro, Dow Finsterwald Jr.

When hot weather hits bentgrass courses, course superintendents also raise mowing heights. That yields more leaf surface and improves evapotranspiration but can slow down putts by a foot or more on the Stimpmeter, which measures green speed. "Better slow grass than no grass" is a mantra among greenkeepers, but the pressure from golfers to keep the greens rolling fast is relentless.

During the hot summer of 2007, ground crews at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, home of the PGA Tour's Tour Championship, tried every trick in the book to keep the club's bentgrass greens healthy. They hand-watered each green every 30 minutes during the hottest days, just enough to cool off the grass blades but not enough to add moisture to the soil. They ran fans and cut the greens with walk-behind mowers rather than heavy triplex riding machines, to reduce stress.

But nothing did much good. "It's such a helpless feeling. You watch the greens turn yellow and you know they're going to collapse, but there's just nothing more you can do," said Ralph Kepple, East Lake's superintendent.

For the 2008 season, East Lake replanted its greens in one of the new "ultra dwarf" strains of Bermuda that are hard for most golfers to distinguish from bentgrass, in terms of performance. The club is pleased with the decision, Mr. Kepple said—especially this summer.

Augusta National, the home of the Masters 90 miles east of Atlanta, is in an area that is often 10 degrees hotter in the summer, but it easily maintains bentgrass greens. The main reason: The course is closed for play in the summer. That's a luxury very few courses can even consider.

—Email John Paul at golfjournal@wsj.com

July 30, 2010

ANNUAL Bluegrass…A Fitting Name, Unfortunately

By Adam Moeller, Agronomist
July 30, 2010

An annual bluegrass putting green shows signs of significant injury resulting from heavy shade, poor drainage, heat stress, and concentrated traffic.

Annual bluegrass turf, particularly on putting greens, is hanging on for dear life at golf courses across the Northeast Region, and at many courses it has given up.  Anthracnose, summer patch, annual bluegrass weevils, parasitic nematodes, heat and/or drought stress, wet wilt, scald, etc. are all responsible, and no doubt 2010 will be burned in the memories of many turf managers for a long time to come.  June and July could be the hottest on record in some locations, and when high temperatures are combined with humid conditions and sporadic thunderstorms, turf decline can be difficult or impossible to control.  Annual bluegrass turf, which has very poor stress tolerance compared to creeping bentgrass, is caving in first, but even bentgrass is failing in some situations.  It feels as though the equator shifted north by a couple hundred miles this year, and our grasses are simply not equipped to deal with the added stress the weather is producing. 

Just about all turfgrass diseases are exacerbated in stressful weather, and many are causing damage this year.  Anthracnose and summer patch are destructive diseases of annual bluegrass putting greens and have been seen on all over the region.  However, root Pythium, nematodes, and bacterial infections are causing damage, too.  Even courses with sound cultural programs and excellent fungicide selection, timing, rates, and application intervals are experiencing disease breakthrough.  Why?  Fungicides do not kill pathogens -- they suppress them.  The term fungistatic more accurately describes most materials, and the effectiveness of most fungicides can be reduced if disease pressure is high enough.     

General decline from heat stress has occurred on many golf course putting greens as well.  Imagine trying to run a marathon when it’s 95^o F and humid without having access to water.  This is essentially what has happened to many annual bluegrass putting greens.  Turf plants are losing energy rapidly and are under so much stress that they can’t cool themselves fast enough.  Unfortunately, a lot of grass isn’t going to finish the race.  Low mowing heights, low soil oxygen caused by poorly draining greens, concentrated traffic, and poor microclimates with shade and air flow problems are the most common issues that have pushed turf into severe decline.  However, even the best programs have had problems this year.      

Most courses have lost grass; some are just worse off than others.  Microclimates, grasses, rootzone drainage, labor and maintenance resources, and expectations are unique at every golf course, and these factors explain the level of injury.  At some point the weather is going to break, but it might be awhile.  Attempting to alleviate plant stress is something all turf managers in the region have already done.  Reduce putting green stress by raising the height of cut, reducing mowing frequency, rolling instead of mowing, switching to solid front rollers on greens mowers, avoiding mowing wet greens, regular applications of soluble nitrogen and fungicides, periodic venting to improve rootzone gas exchange, and irrigating and syringing the turf as accurately as possible.  Even with all these practices, in some instances, decline has still occurred.  Closing a green also may be necessary to allow for recovery.  At this point, golfers need to realize that most putting greens are just barely hanging on, and turf loss is extremely difficult to prevent in a summer like 2010

July 20, 2010

The heat and humidity continue to be the overwhelming factor this summer. Lately at least we have had some more timely rain. The golf course is holding its own. Disease pressure is pretty significant. I have seen everything from dollar spot, brown patch, summer patch, fairy ring, anthracnose and even some pythium. Pretty much that covers it all. Some greens have had some severe fairy ring. I will be treating these areas this week. This required us to needle tine a few greens in order to get the chemical to the pathogen. Fairways have just been treated for brown patch and dollar spot. It has certainly been awhile since we have had a summer like this. Our water supply continues to hold on, though for a period there it was getting very low. We also had a hydraulic leak on the 7th fairway, from our oldest fairway mower (1994). We use biodegradable oil and the damage appears to be fading. Obviously our equipment fleet is aging very quickly. Our capital spending has been at a freeze for several years and we have some very old pieces of equipment. It all adds up to a challenging summer. Hope your all enjoying the course as much as we enjoy maintaining it.   Oh, and by the way, look out for the bear thats been roaming around.

July 13th, 2010

The last few weeks have been difficult ones for turf managers in New England. The weather has been unlike anything we have seen in the last few seasons. High heat, humidity and a general lack of rainfall has the golf course looking and playing very differently than in years past. Last week especially was very taxing on the turf (poa annua mostly). When we see this weather coming we try and do everything we can to baby our turf through it until the weather changes. We skipped several mowings on greens and in fact raised the height of cut slightly. We made sure we treated the areas (Greens and Tees) preventively with fungicides that we know we can afford to. We watered everything diligently, making sure to apply enough for the turf to survive but not so much that it leads to disease problems. We also have to manage a crew that is outside working all day in tough conditions. We are still not out of the tough streatch of weather yet, but the golf course is still holding its own. The fairways are very firm and have several off color areas. This is somewhat by design. It tells me that we are watering about the right amount. Firmer and faster playing conditions are what we have been looking for and we are starting to get them.  

June 7th, 2010

The summer weather has kicked in and so hasn't the rate of growth. We fertilized fairways, tees and collars last week and that has also contributed to the increased rate of growth. Areas are filling in at a much quicker pace now. Our plan is to continue to promote growth, filling in any bad areas and then to begin sodding any remaining stubborn areas. In general the place is looking better and better everday.

The greens have also responded well to the weather. We have been working the height down to our desired summer height. We have been grooming (light verti-cut) several times a week. We had a lot of leggy and lateral bent growth from the spring that we are trying to work out of them. We also roll our greens at least every other day. We are also looking to lightly topdress greens starting tomorrow and continue this practice every other week throughout the growing season. This will help us keep our thatch levels in check and promototes a firmer and smoother surface. 

We still are running a smaller staff as of now, but I have three more summer kids coming in soon. Once they are trained it will help get some of our key people off of mowing equipment and hopefully doing some much needed project work. I have been working on a hit list of things that need attention and I have four pages of notes for only three holes so far. So there are plenty of misc. nonexpensive items on the course that we will begin taking care of.   

May 25, 2010

Well two weeks following aerification things have healed up pretty well. With this recent heat, turf growth has taken off and I can see improvements in the greens daily. The 10th, 13th and 16th greens especially. Damaged fairway spots are also showing positive signs of filling in. I have yet to fertilize fairways, so these spots will improve even more once we do. We continue to run with a smaller staff, so we are keeping busy with our regular mowing along with course trim, bunker trim and misc. projects. It looks like summer is in full gear, so enjoy the weather and the course.

May 12, 2010

The back and forth spring weather continues. We were making great progress about a week ago, but cooler temperatures and frost have slowed growth back to nothing. However in general I feel as if we are further along at this point then we are in typical years. The golf course is in pretty good shape, the greens during the warm weather showed vast improvement, so to me it clearly is a matter of weather and time. Fairway spots damaged from the winter that we seeded have begun to grow, so these to will recover. The 7th green is open and while it has good coverage it is still very thin in spots. I feel that we can still fill the rest of this green in while it handles play and traffic. 

Aerification - We had two good dry days for greens aerification. Even with a breakdown in day one and a frost delay on day two we had no trouble completing nine holes each day. We put out as much sand as we could afford. Id like to bury them more in sand, but Im really tied to how much material I can buy. We are getting our ammonium sulfate on the greens this morning, so when the weather changes the growth should follow and the holes will fill in nicely. We will also get one more overseeding into them as well. The greens will putt a little poorly for a week or so, then the more we mow them the better they will be. Traditionally I like to have the golf course in great shape by Memorial day weekend, hopefully that will be the case this year. 

March 26th, 2010

Most of, if not all of the snow is gone from the course, with the exception of a little bit up around the 15th, the right side of 12 and the 4th tee. We were fairly wet and flooded at the start of the week and we dried out nicely in the last few days. The weather looks rather cold for the next few days. At last Monday's green and board meetings I gave a full report on the condition of the golf course. For the most part we faired much better this year than last in regards to winter damage. The worst green as of right now is the 7th with a fairly sizeable portion of ice damage in the middle of this green. As of right now I think this will be our one temperoary green to start the year as we recover this damage. There are a few other greens on the course with some small pockets of damage that I think we can work around. We also have several greens with some very off color poa. Much of the leaf tissue has lost its color, but almost all of these areas have started to show regeneration of growth coming from the crown of the plant. Some of these greens have greened up considerably in the last week (3 and 9). Overnight temperatures tonight look to get down close to single digits so the threat for damage remains. I have left most greens covered at this point and we will begin removing covers next week. We have been cleaning up the course as well and hope to have a good amount of this completed next week as well. I hope by the end of next week ill be able to make a determination with our greens chairs about the proper time to open the course for play.