Some courses have had a rough summer for conditioning

Posted: August 6th, 2012 | Author: Larry Bohannan | Filed under: Larry's Golf Blog | Tags: Bermuda, summer, temperatures, transition

One of the things that is true on every golf course in the Coachella Valley is that no matter how hard the course superintendents and his crew work, no courses is in as pristine shape in July or Augusta as it is in January or February.

With the rye grass from the summer having died out and the Bermuda grass of the summer subject to the harsh conditions and temperatures of the summer, you just can’t have a course that is as perfectly green in the summer as it is in the winter.

That’s not to say summer is a bad time for courses. In fact, many golfers actual prefer to play off the summertime Bermuda grass. And the ball off the tee tends to roll forever in the summer if you hit it right.

Still, there has been talk all summer this year about how many courses have experienced rough “transition” periods, meaning the transition from the lush wintertime rye to the summer Bermuda. A rough transition can translate into several things, from bare patches on the golf course where rye has died and Bermuda has not returned from dormancy, to brown spots on the course to greens that are crusty and grainy. If you get all three of those, well, you’ve got a golf course that isn’t in very good shape.

Some courses that are subject to a rough transition are courses that heavily seed their courses with rye for the winter. That’s a lot of grass that goes away as the summer temperatures hit, and sometimes the Bermuda just isn’t there in time to make up for the lost rye.

When a rough transition happens, its easy for player to complain about the conditions and look at the superintendent as the problem. But in a vast majority of cases, that’s just not true. It is tough to maintain a golf course in playing conditions that can include 120-degree days, higher humidity than usual in July and August and soil conditions that can vary wildly from course to course. In fact, it’s sometime borders on being a miracle that the courses are in playable conditions at all.

So if you see a bare patch or a brown spot on a course in the summer, or you think the greens are a little slow, don’t complain to the pro shop or yell at the superintendent. You need to remember it’s kind of a miracle the course is in such good shape.