Well after a long extended period of wetness, now the heat and humidity of normal July are about to return. We are battling a few issues, mostly related to the elements. One I've mentioned before is disease in the rough (every where actually). Due to the mixed bag of grasses in the rough, at any time multiple diseases are attacking multiple grasses. I mention this as the picture below shows the difference between a pure stand of tall fescue and the heinz 57 we have.
Above on the left is pure tall fescue, no disease; same as below left which is new tall fescue sod around the fairway on 15
Whenever I talk about summer and poa annua it always comes down to roots. High temperatures and saturated conditions mean this shallow rooted plant struggles to compete. The wet conditions created a situation where the plant had no reason to drive roots deep, so they are even shallower than normal. The exception seen below is where we have an aeration hole and sand. That drier condition allowed the plant to put down a few more roots. It can even be seen that they are very white and healthy.
This past year we purchased a deep tine aerator that we use in the fairways. This great picture of some fairway turf shows the effect of an aeration hole and rooting. Although we have only been able to perform minimal aeration, the results are amazing when air can get into the ground.
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