Invitational Preparations and Greens

The Invitational marks the half way point in the golf season.  Not only are preparations being made for our premier event but also to take the facility through the second half of our golf season.  Some extra painting and sprucing takes place along with trying to make our conditions the best possible at the same time taking into consideration that we still have half a season of golf remaining.

Continuous rain over the last month has not given us a great deal of low humidity and dry conditions to get extended ball roll on our greens.  Rolling and topdressing does help improve the overall speed but soft greens with grass full of water does not provide for the fastest conditions.  We've been able to topdress the last two Mondays which will help with the smoothness.  The wind and heat over the weekend began to dry to green surfaces between and Saturday and Sunday.  As I was handwatering our greens in the afternoon, I could feel a marked difference in firmness from Saturday to Sunday.  Handwatering allows us to put water where it needs to be applied instead of watering the whole green when it is not needed.

We will begin rolling again on Tuesday which will assist in bringing the speed up to where we expect through the tournament.  Hot temperatures over the next couple of days will begin to slow the growth of the greens as well.  End of the weekend temperatures appear to be very hot as well with heat stretching into next week.  Attempting to strike a balance between our Invitational and the rest of the season is a delicate at best.  In general if we can keep a major rain event away, I think we will have great conditions this week and will be able to successfully manage the rest of the season.  

We will be making a bump up in our overall height of cut after the Invitational until the weather breaks in August to give our turf just enough added length to allow it to conserve energy through this most difficult period. Alternating between rolling and mowing during the week will also give our turf a break.