Rain!

It's been a long time since we've seen a cup full of water.  Taken Saturday, June 30.  #6 Green

Mother nature seems to have changed her mind very quickly, and because of that, our mindset is changing very quickly.  Typical for the Chicago area, if you don't like the weather, wait an hour.  Seeing as how we've been so focused on managing the drought conditions this year, you would think that we would be able to relax some with the rains that we have been seeing the past few days.  Unfortunately, this is only partially true.  While we may not have to worry about dragging hoses around, we now have to worry about disease pressures that we have not really had to face much this year.  Superintendents are rarely happy with the weather.

Rains on Friday morning brought us 1.3" of welcome rain, and a storm with heavy rain rolled through just a few minutes before I started writing this, my guess is that we have received about another half inch of rain.  Now with the forecast showing sustained heat and humidity for the at least the next week we will be shifting our scouting of the course from dry spots to pythium disease scouting.  Pythium Blight is potentially the most devastating disease that we see in this area, as it can kill large areas of turf within hours if it is not controlled quickly.  It is carried by water and is usually seen in wet, low areas and can only survive nights with high humidity and low temperatures above 70 degrees, exactly what we will be seeing for the coming week.  All of our bentgrass areas (tees, greens, and fairways) have had preventative treatments applied, but it is still possible to see breakthroughs so we will have to stay on our toes to make sure that any pythium that pops up is treated curatively and not allowed to spread.

So, although our mindset has changed for now, this summer still continues to be a challenge, and it will be a long time before we are in the clear.