Brown is OK.

With high temperatures hovering around 100 degrees for the last 3 weeks, a typical summer for us, our golf course is starting to take on its "summer appearance".  With all eyes on the British Open I figured this was a good time for an educational piece on where golf started, the expectations we have put on it in the U.S., and the desire for lush green turf vs playability.

Afternoon stress in fairways and rough, just getting the fairway through the day

Stress in the rough - right where we want it - as we know we did not over water and the course and it is playing firm

Our high temperatures hover around 100 for most of the summer, last summer we set a record with 19 days over 100 and our average is 13 days.  Our evening temperatures will be in the low 90's around 8 PM and the mid 70's at 5 AM many times.  We have a 44 year old irrigation system, with very poor spacing, minimal pumping capacity in our pumpstations by today's standards, and stand along satellites that are not linked together with a central computer so one part of the golf course does not know what the other part is watering and how much water they are currently using.  All of this drastically effects our efficiency and constant pressure to achieve a uniform coverage and distribution of water.

With that said, I feel we do a very good with our water management, our aesthetics, and focus on the playability of the golf course.  Golf started with low standards, drought stricken fairways, firm fast link styles of courses.  Over the years, and mainly in the U.S., we have evolved to very prestine conditioning, lush green fairways and rough, and more water usage compared to our ancestors.  There is nothing wrong with a little brown color in rough and fairway areas.  I always educate my staff, who want to achieve a beautiful lush green city park type golf course, that our goal here is playability.  For us to maintain a lush green rough all day, we would have to water beyond the water holding capacity of our soil and have very wet squishy areas in the morning.  This would lead to a nice green lush look by 5 and 6 PM.  Instead we focus on keeping the golf course firm, playable, and very few soft or squishy areas in the morning.  Which leads to handwatering through outt the day to babysit the turf through the day, and some areas of stress by afternoon.  But I feel our number #1 objective is to produce a good playing golf course and we don't have to be picture perfect green to achieve that.  We use less water that way, create less mechanical damage from our equipment and golf carts, and create the best playing course that we can.  With TV, you are starting to see more turf under stress during major tournaments, and a general trend in most superintendents to be better stewards of the land and environment, and focus on the playbility of the course in relation to economics.  I remember a quote from a superintendent that I mentored under for 7 years as an assistant, "We look green in the morning, a little stress by 11 AM, and bring out the fire trucks by 3 PM because we will be on fire"  That is a good day, a job well done, and a well playing golf course in a superintendent's eyes.

Mid-morning stress on the rough on #18

With that said, I will make several posts over the next couple months to shed some light on what are truly dealing with with our 44 year old irrigation system, the spacing and nozzling issues that we have, the uniformity of distribution challenges we face, and the capability of our pumpstations.  Along with moisture meters, tools of our trade, and techniques we utilize to achieve the optimum soil moisture level.  But there is nothing wrong with a little brown on the golf course, it plays well, and three is no need to have everything lush green.  Enjoy your British Open weekend.