Storms, tall grass and wet conditions

Well, storms in our area last Friday were devastating to many who were in their path.  Luckily, everyone survived.  What I watched on TV yesterday evening from the deep south was unbelievably sad.  Catastrophic destruction and many deaths and injuries.  It makes what I am about to discuss somewhat trivial but life goes on and we have a golf course to manage.

We've received 4.13" of rain since 4/19.(6.39" total in April)  Double our normal total for the month.  Not a large amount in comparison to some areas south of the metropolitan area where they have received 12-15 inches.  We were able to mow most everything on Thursday of last week.  Yesterday, before .75" fell in the afternoon, we began mowing some rough areas, well over 1/2 of the tees and the cool season green surrounds.  Rain pulled us off the mowers in the afternoon.  We will not be able to get out again until Friday.  I will be surprised if the fairways are able to be mowed before the next rain comes in Saturday night.  We might be able to try some on Saturday but we have water weeping out of many of the hillsides which limits are ability to mow.  The lack of sunshine has slowed the growth of our turf somewhat but the next few days will bring on a huge growth spurt in combination with the moisture that is readily available.

Our goal is not to create damage this time of year by being too aggressive and  trying to mow during these wet and soft conditions.  Damage turf now could lead to severely stressed turf conditions during the summer.  Our solid roller program on our greens is working well with no scalping along some of our edges that we would normally see during these soft conditions.  Growth regulators have slowed growth of our greens and allowed us to skip days mowing when our conditions have been too wet and soft to mow.  Of course, we've had very limited play which makes no mowing decisions a little easier as well. 

I appreciate your understanding during this period of wet turf conditions.

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