Friday, August 25, 2023

Drought Conditions and Turfgrass

Just a quick update on how turfgrass responds to moisture stress.  Brown dry turf turns to dead turf very quickly.  Golf cart tires are very destructive to the dry turf.

Because of all the humps, bumps, and mounds across Timarron, managing water in a drought is very challenging.  The tops of the mounds stay dry and the low areas remain wet, which is not ideal for golfer playability.  Everyday we are making adjustment to the irrigation system to address areas that are too wet vs. too dry.  Its a balance.

The goal is to keep the grass as green and as healthy as possible.  By doing so, once the rains return, the turf will recover quickly.  The browned out, dry areas will recover in time, but it could take months for them to do so.

Long term solutions that have been implemented in the last few years to help move water into the soil and help minimize wet/dry areas-

  • Aerification  
  • Wetting agents
  • Fertigation
  • Additional fertilizer across the course helps the turf recover from drought/cart traffic stress
  • Additional calcium application

  


 Golf cart tires that have driven over dry turf on hole #4


Hole #16 fairway.  Sprinklers working perfectly, but you can see the brown dry areas.    



One day of cart traffic on hole #13 at Timarron