Spring Flush - Rough

The rough is one area of the golf course that is a challenge this time of the year.  It isn’t that long, we actually are mowing everyday and have also mowed the last two weekends.  It is so dense, thick, and wide leaf blades right now.  Also, the weather has been wet and cloudy keeping the rough moist almost all day long.  This combination of damp, lush, thick, dense, and very heavy grass makes its very penal.  I have lowered the height down just a little from our summer mowing height, the reason I do not lower it more is because the grass height is a direct relation to the root depth, and we need to develop a large root mass to make it through the hot summer.  If we shave down the top, then we will shave down the root system underneath and have many more dry thin areas come July and August.  That’s why the fairways take a lot more inputs during the summer of fertilizers, chemicals, and handwatering, because the lower height is a smaller root mass.  

What is interesting, is that I feel our soils and turf in the rough are self-sustainable, we have not fertilized the rough in 3 years and look how healthy it is.  All the years of decomposing organic matter and returning the grass clippings allow the rough to feed itself.  That’s why we can’t control the density and thickness by cutting back on the fertilizer, because we have not fertilized the entire rough in 3 years.  Once we get a little warmer the rough will take on a thinner leaf blade, dry out in the canopy, and be much easier to get a club through it.