Monday afternoon I saw one of the most beautiful things I have seen in quite a while, RAIN! We ended up receiving 0.75” and Tuesday morning you could tell how much the turf liked having some real, fresh, water. You could see not only the color was more vibrant but also that the leaf tissue of the turf was plump with water.
When we get rain, the turf takes up that rain water very efficiently, causing the leaf tissue to swell. Plants, like us are made up of individual cells that are made predominantly of water. When high quality, abundantly available water is available to the plant cells, the cells become full of water. On the other hand when low quality or low water availability occurs, the cells shrink and are for lack of a better term, shriveled.
This is much like what happens in humans. When we are hydrated, we fell better and often look better due to the cells in the skin being full of water. If we get dehydrated, we slow down, don’t feel as good and our skin looks dry. Pretty much the same process in the turf.
While still beneficial, the only area where full leaves can have a positive and negative effect is on the greens. When the grass on the greens is full and “puffy” with water, the leaves are fat, with more surface area. To produce good putting surfaces, we want the ball to roll across the tips of the grass but when the leaves are puffy with water the ball rolls more on the leaf surface causing slow greens speeds.
Don’t get me wrong, fresh abundant water is good for greens too and I wouldn’t trade it for dry conditions but we will have to work a little harder on our plant growth regulators and fertility programs to keep the greens rolling at a consistent speed for play.
The rain did bring our lakes up 2” which is great but we still have a long way to go to before we are out of the woods where water availability is concerned. As it has been for a while now, water availability is a wait and see game until we get to summer.
The golf course was nice and green for the Ladies Member/Guest on Tuesday. Paige and the Ladies 18 holers added a little color to the PPG for the putting competition which turned out very nice. I hope everyone had a fun time!
We look forward to the Talon (Men’s Member/Guest) on Friday and Saturday of this week and wish everyone good luck!
I look forward to seeing everyone on the course, and as always, if you have any questions, flag me down or shoot me an email. I always enjoy talking turf!
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