In addition to the tree we had another mishap that added to the lore of events on the 4th. One of the mortars used in the fireworks display misfired and landed in the WGCC shrubs and caught fire. How extensive the damage is has yet to be determined, but the short term effect is a nasty scar along the top of the G.
One of the tell tale signs of summer for us is the heat and the bright sun. Turf stress begins to show symptoms due to the weather. It also gives clues to the stress seen by golfers. If you notice you can see two footprints in green with surrounding brown turf. The damaged turf is from using spray sunscreen to coat your legs and the overspray burns the turf. We promote the use of sunscreen to protect yourself from the harmful effects of the sun, but to avoid this turf damage apply when standing on a cart path or other hard pan area. Your skin will be protected and turf damage can be avoided.
Many have inquired about the browned out grass area on the newly constructed bed above the 11th green. When we developed this area we choose Zoysia sod to give us a low maintenance but attractive turf to reduce erosion on this hillside. We also chose this warm season grass for its ability to take the southern exposure during the summer heat. Unfortunately the first season we installed it was also one of the coldest winters in a long time. The effects of a cold winter are seen in the picture below.
Zoysia is a slow growing grass, and it would most likely recover in a year or two, but painfully slow for our needs. We will be replacing this with a newer style Bermuda grass later this summer and try that approach. Bermuda has the same tough characteristics and summer tolerance but with a hardier tolerance for extremes. We will harvest the zoysia for use somewhere else on the course in an area that the slow recovery will not be so visible.
