Gosh ... Will the Humidity Please Break?

In all of the years I have lived in the Valley, and from other discussions with superintendents that lived here even longer the monsoon season this summer is the longest by far and the worst that most have ever seen.  Bermudagrass indeed loves this kind of weather up to a point ... if long enough we will even experience issues with the bermudagrass in the form of disease and over growth ... not even addressing the insects that life cycles are extended and their populations are exploding during this time.  Just look at all of the issues with the mosquitoes this year and the West Nile virus just to see what this weather means to insect populations.

Clipping on the Practice After Just One Day of Growth

Mowing 7's Fairway -- Look at the Clippings Flying from the Reel

What are we doing?  We are addressing this issue especially on the greens by cutting back the water, increasing the verticutting of the greens, increasing the applications and the rates of growth regulators, and lowering the HOC of our mowers ... but we are still having issues gaining green speeds since the aerification.  To allow for quick recovery of the turf after the aerification (by the way we got) we pump up the fertilizer.  Normally, it isn't much of an issue to tone it back down but this year is a different story ... but trust me we are working extremely hard on them to get them from their current 8.0 to 8.5 back to 9.5 to 10 on the stimp. 

Yesterday towards the end of the day, one of our units blew a hydraulic line while crossing 7's approach.  We have repaired the unit and have treated the the enitre area ... recovery should be quite soon.

The Golden Light From the Sun



9's Green Under the Golden Light

8's Green on the Morning of it's Photo Shoot

The one good thing about the humidity is thanks to the daily formation of clouds, the filtered sun makes for beautiful pictures of the golf course.