Heat and Humidity

The heat and humidity continue to make their presence felt here in the Kansas City area. The turf grass has been under a tremendous amount of stress with the heat and down pours of rain that have been happening. These two together are not a good combination like I have talked about before. Earlier this week we found a plugged up drain line on #2 green. This means that that part of the green wasn't able to drain and the roots were sitting in over-saturated soils and boiling itself. We have since trenched in a new drain line and the water just came flowing out of the green. This should hopefully help that green a bunch and help it to stay dry and healthier. We are continuing to see improvement in greens #2, 10, 15, and 6. Once they dry out and the temperatures are high it is a long and slow process to get them back. I told everyone that I was wanting to keep them dry and that is still the case as wet over-saturated soils can cause death this time of year by choking out the turf and not allowing oxygen to get to it's roots. I know some players have expressed concern for #2 and 10 but I assure you everything is going fine and we are giving them some TLC and look for them to continue to improve. We will be continuing to sod some of the stressed out areas in the collars as weather conditions and play allow us too. We have started already and I am planning to continue on #2,6, and 10. The fairways continue to amaze me with how fast they are continuing to grow. We seem to not be able to stay in front of them. They are thick and lush and look great this year which is a little different then in the last two years when the temperatures weren't as warm. Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will try and upload some pictures of the plugged drain line on #2 when I can get my camera to cooperate.