Heat = Disease

Two weeks ago I blogged to all of you readers about the 3+" of rain that we received, RAIN, RAIN... + Men's Member-Guest.   Well now after all that rain,  the extreme the has moved in.  Sunday our high was 106, Monday we set a record with 108, Tuesday was 107, and today we have cooled down to 100.  With all the moisture in soil, the pant material, and in general in the atmosphere has caused the humidity to be higher than normal.  This extreme hot weather and extreme heat index has brought on some diseases around the golf course.  Greens, tees, and approaches have been treated preventatively with a fungicide, but fairways have a lot of dollar spot disease on them right now.

Dollar spot disease on #1 fairway

Dollar spot disease on #18 fairway

Dollar spot disease is a surface disease that will not kill the plant or root system.  It infects the leaf tissue on the plant, stunts the growth, and is more of a visual disease that effects the aesthetics.  We will not treat the fairways until it gets worse, and more than likely the plant will outgrow the disease very soon.

We also have red thread disease popping up in the rough right now.

Red thread disease in the rough

Red thread diease

This is the same type of disease that does not kill the plant, but does effect the leaf tissue and the visual appearance of our rough.  As things dry out and the humidity decreases, then you will see the pat out grow this disease.