5 South Green
Now that we are halfway through summer, the stress of growing grass in the Mid-Atlantic has started to show. Consistent days above 90 degrees and heavy unexpected rainfalls have provided many challenges to overcome. The grounds department’s focus has become keeping the grass alive while providing the best golfing conditions possible. Various techniques are used when dealing with the heat and in most cases it’s a combination of everything that we do which helps keep the turf alive.
One factor that we have been addressing this week is the morning shade that 5 & 16 South greens receive. Morning shade is extremely detrimental to the turf health since it has been proven that morning sun is the most important. Morning sun helps the turf wake up and start its processes such as photosynthesis as soon as possible. Today our Senior Horticulturist Peter Coates pruned/limbed up trees behind both 5 & 16 greens to help improve light penetration through these trees. This is the best course of action to help conditions currently and we will monitor the condition of the greens over time to see if it improves. Further evaluation will be necessary to see if some selective tree removal will be necessary to improve conditions enough to meet the demands of the golf course.
