I recently posted an article published in the WSJ regarding "Brown being the new green". I don't agree 100% with everything in the article, but I do strongly believe the color of a golf course should NOT reflect how well the course plays. Last year, it rained and it rained and it rained some more! Hartefeld was thick, lush and green all year round and what did we have? Slow greens, thick rough, disease, insects, algae, restricted carts rules and the list goes on!
If you were on the course over the last few days, you will see we have some off color turf. We are getting dry, but thats okay, our grass is strong and will only get stronger! I am not a believer in "babying" our turf this time of year. We don't want it to become over stressed, but we do want the grass to work! For you movie buffs, from Meet the Focker, I lean more towards the Ferber method than the Focker method. Now is the time you want the grass to work, we want the roots to dig deep. We want the grass to "understand" what it must do when stresses are introduced in the summer months. Keeping the grass lush and green this time of year by overwatering is not the way you do that.
Yesterday morning we were dry and with the weather we experienced we got even drier. The grass did stress yesterday, but it was cool and sun intensities were low. We watched the course very closely to make sure areas didn't stress beyond a recovery point. Evaluating the moisture levels prior to leaving for the day, we decided to apply some water to the course, BUT just enough to get it through the day today just in time for the rain tonight.
Wall Street Journal Article - "Is Brown the New Green?"
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