Daybreak at LedgeRock - It was a pleasure to head out on the course at 6am this morning and not instantly break into a sweat, now that the stretch of hot and very humid weather that has endured for the last few weeks has finally broken. The course has made it though the difficult period very well, with the only scars from the weather being some brown tire tracks here and there, particularly in the roughs. The bentgrass surfaces look and are playing very well. The rain stayed away for most of the period which helped reduce disease pressure a little. It also helped as the turf was not sitting in a wet envirnoment where it could potentially rot.
Last Tuesday the greens finally received the topdressing they have been waiting for the last few weeks. The drag brush needed new brushes and Scott (shop manager) decided it would be a good time to modify the set up so that it would be more effective. The results were fantastic! His broom design ensured that the sand was incorporated into the canopy much better than before and one pass resulted in most of it being worked in (as can be seen in the picture above.) It usually took three or more passes before for the same results, so the new design greatly reduced the stress on the plants. The new broom set-up also stood up the grass much better than the prior set-up so we were able to get a better cut, even considering the sand.
For the most part we have been able to maintain green-speed over the last few weeks. The lack of heavy rain has helped, but we constantly are monitoring them to make sure that they are healthy. If it looks like they are getting stressed and rolling or mowing will be detrimental to them, we can quickly make the decision to skip one of them. Aeration is scheduled for August 18th. Once it is completed, the rootzone has lots of available air. This coupled with the temperatures starting to drop, results in worrying less about stressing the turf too much. While we have maintained green-speed, there is some potential it still may vary a little for the next few weeks until the risk for damage is fully gone.
I've mentioned in numerous posts how optimum rootzone temperature for bentgrass is in the 64-75F range. The image below is LRGCs rootzone (at 2") temperature over the last week. As can be easily seen they topped out near 100F and barely dropped into the high range for optimal growth. Another interesting thing is that the greens with the fans (2 & 4 below) are noticeably cooler than the greens without fans, even at 2" depth.
We are still working on mowing the brush areas and edging bunkers; these are time consuming but the plan is to have them completed by the time aeration is completed so the property looks fantastic all fall.
Lastly, as promised, here is another one of Brandon's photos.
