US Open comes to Glen Echo

We are not trying to give you the rough at Bethpage Black this week but Mother Nature is making it very difficult to get some of our rough cut. Most if not all of our fairways have had a few laps around them in the last 5 day but there are other areas of the course which have not been mowed since last Wednesday or Thursday which leads to the photo below. We have raised one mowers height up to 3" to reduce the negative impacts on the turf.

• Removing too much turf at one time which can put the plants under some serious stress, especially in a high heat and ground saturated situation.
• Grass clippings will be laying on freshly mowed turf in high temperature which creates disease, playability and is rather unsightly.
• Uneven cut of the turf which can lead to disease and turf damage to the ends of the plant.

The 3" cut will take place in the deeper areas of the rough and will be lowered down to match the other mower once we can get caught up with our mowing in the next 5-7 days. As the heat begins to effect the cool season turf, we will plan a 1/4" to 1/2" increase in height overall for our rough to protect it from the stress of the middle summer heat. As the temperatures begin to cool in late August or early September and our cool season turf is beginning to recover, we will lower our height to assist in fighting the dreaded bermuda grass lies that we can experience in our rough.