Rain.

In the last 24 hours 1.8" of rain fell on our already soaked golf course. The course is currently very wet and closed. Beyond just making the course very wet, this much moisture has other detrimental effects on the course.

To begin with, the longer grass remains wet the greater the disease pressure. While we do spray preventive, the longer the plant remains wet, the greater the chance of a break through despite our sprays. This time of year we end up spraying more because of the increased disease pressure and all this rain further increases pressure. Also, the longer the grass is underwater the greater the chance of death due to submersion. There are a few things that dictate how quickly grass will die once submerged; duration of submersion, temperature of water and frequency of submersion. We do have pretty good surface and sub-surface drainage here and are able to get most of the water off the playing surface pretty quickly. However, there are still some spots in fairways that lay wet for a day or two. While this isn't a problem once or twice every summer, we are already at four or five times in some of these spots this year. In these areas you'll see some yellowing out where the plant is struggling to stay alive.

Grass struggling in wet areas.

Now there are some things that we do in an attempt to dry the course as quickly as possible. First and foremost whenever we have a problem areas we run drainage through it. That's the fastest way to eliminate a problem area. Another thing that we have been doing since Mark started here is to top-dress fairways with sand. By adding sand to the soil profile, we are able to dilute the fine clay with a much coarser sand particle that helps to firm up the playing surface and move water through it quicker. This is why the fairways are usually firm and dry a few hours after it rains, but the rough has spots that stay wet for days. In recent years we have started topdressing the bad spots in the rough along with the drains we put in. The more we stay on it the better the course will handle these rain events.

Our bunkers are another issue when it rains like this and the only thing I need to say here is that the ones we have redone in the last few years handle the rain much better than the old ones. The Billy Bunker polymer we put in has held up very nicely so far and we look forward to doing more bunkers. This will not only keep the bunkers more consistent from day to day, but it will greatly reduce the labor required to get them back into playing condition after heavy rains like this.

Bunker on #6. Not renovated.

Recently renovated bunkers.

Below are some links with additional information about flooding and the impacts on turf.

OSU flood article
Tennessee flood article

Ian