Greens update

With the exception of #3, I do not believe we have taken any further steps backwards over the last couple of days and we continue to move in a positive direction  with a few of our greens that were showing some serious stress.  No doubt there still is some ugly grass out there right now but the weather this week should begin to put us back on the right track for recovery.  We should begin to get a good idea this week which weakened or damaged turf spots will regenerate and or the the spots that will need to be restored by either inserting plugs or doing some additional seeding into the profile which would encourage more bentgrass over poa annua.  I expect that a majority of our turf will regenerate from the crowns and will recover.

We will begin to place some sand on the greens with our light topdressing program which will help to improve ball roll and will begin to protect the crowns of the plant that have not had any sand for well over a month.  This will also help us as we begin to lower our heights over the next few weeks.  Our weaker greens will probably not have any sand placed on them for another week to reduce the risk of the blades being injured from the abrasiveness of the sand.

We will be removing some of our damaged collar sod in the next few weeks and replace it.  Even with the severe conditions we have experienced, it is disappointing to me that we lost some of the turf that we did.  As we do each season, we will evaluate our areas that need improvement, the parts of the program that worked and figure out if we could have done anything to offset some of the conditions that mother nature threw at us this season.

We cannot be over aggressive with our turf recovery work because there is still opportunities for some significant heat that could take out any gains.  With our Senior Club Championship in progress, Club Championship, and St. Louis District Senior Championship approaching during the last weekend of August and through the week leading up to Labor Day weekend, we on focused on getting our turf back to normal as quickly as possible.