Kenmure Country Club
July Course Update 2025
Weather & Overall Course Conditions
I'm writing this on July 10th, and we've had some nice hot
summer weather ever since the end of June. We ended June with a streak of days
in the 90s, with a little rainfall, and now we're moving into mid-July, and we
haven't really had that much rainfall either. It's been hot, it's been humid
and sticky, and some afternoons it's been downright miserable. But that comes
with the territory here at Kenmure. So we'll talk a little bit about course
conditions and what you're seeing out there right now. First of all, I'd like
to say I'm very happy with the conditions of the fairways and the greens and
most of the green surrounds. We've applied lots of wetting agents, lots of
fungicides, and growth regulators to keep everything in check, and everything
is looking pretty good. Our moisture levels in the fairways have been
consistent, and we have very few browned-out spots. So, so far so good as we
move into the middle of July.
Bentgrass in Summertime
I would like to talk a little bit about bentgrass decline in
the summer. There's a popular song written by George Gershwin called Summertime,
where he talks about “summertime and the living's easy.” Well, this may apply
to kids off school for the summer break, as well as lots of teachers who don't
have to have a second job in the summer, but it definitely does not
apply to bentgrass. Bentgrass is a cool-season grass, and once the soil
temperatures and the air temperatures reach a certain point, bentgrass starts
to decline. The root system starts to shrink back, and its ability to handle
the stresses of nature and the stretches of cart-path traffic aren't as great,
so we have to be careful with our water management, and we must also be careful
with our traffic management. So far, so good this year. We've had very few days
where we've had to go to cart-path-only in the afternoon.
I will say that when we go to cart-path-only in the
afternoon, it's not always predicated on just the temperature. It's a number of
factors, including soil-moisture levels, humidity, how many days in a row we've
had hot temperatures, what time of year it is, what the root system is like
underneath the ground—various factors. It's not just a matter of temperature.
If it was, it would be easy, but we like to let people off the path. We realize
it's an accessibility issue, especially for our older members, and really any
of the members when it gets this hot. Really, once the temperatures get up in
the high 80s to 90, it's pretty stressful out there in the afternoon for people
to do a lot of walking, and we definitely wouldn't want anybody to have a heat
stroke, but there are times when we need to protect our turfgrass from these
stresses, and when we do, the call is made, and we expect everybody to stay on
the path. It's just as simple as that. Somebody is sent around from the pro
shop and lets everybody know they need to get back on the path, and when this
occurs, we appreciate you getting back on the cart path. Like I said, this
happens few and far between. This isn't a daily occurrence, and we appreciate
your participation and support during these tough times.
Summer Weeds & Tee/Collar Issues
OK, moving on, let's talk about some of the ugly things that
we're seeing right now. We are at the height of the summer weed season. Our top
weeds that we have trouble with in the middle of summer is Dallisgrass. Dallisgrass
is a perennial weed, which means it comes back every year from its root
structure in the ground. It can't be dealt with pre-emergent herbicides, as
it's always emerged, and it's very hard to control in bentgrass, especially
when it gets hot. The second most troublesome weed this time of year is
Virginia buttonweed. Virginia buttonweed also is a perennial weed, so it's not
easily controlled with pre-emergent herbicides. Post-emergent herbicides are
available for both Virginia buttonweed and Dallisgrass but are very difficult
to use this time of year on bentgrass due to the stress it causes on the plant.
Other than that, we're seeing a little bit of clover in certain areas out
there, which is easy to eliminate. But this time of year, with bentgrass, it's
very hard to use herbicides without some small bit of damage or turning things
a little off-color or orange. So, we just try to suck it up until the weather
breaks in late August, and we can get out there and do some more herbicide
treatments.
We are seeing a lot of browned-out areas on a bunch of tees.
This has been caused by a combination fungicide and growth-regulator
application that was made last week at a time when it was probably a little too
hot, and the traffic that afternoon really stressed out a bunch of those areas.
And they have turned off-color or a little browned-out and sort of orange-ish,
purplish-looking right now. While some of those areas are not very
aesthetically pleasing, once we get some cooler temperatures and even some cloudy
afternoons and a little more moisture, those spots will be back. Also, I've
noticed a little bit of annual bluegrass weevil that have been feeding in some
of the poa annua in the collars around the greens. This was all treated
for a couple of days ago, so we've stopped any of that damage, and that'll heal
back too. There's a lot of ugly damage that occurs in bentgrass through July
and into August, and for the most part, it's all temporary. No matter what
happens, it'll bounce back for the fall. I speak from multiple years of
experience and multiple years of experience on this golf course, and it is
always the case that all these areas green back up and start looking good once
we get out of the high-heat stress period of the year.
Irrigation & Water Management
We've dealt with a few irrigation breaks and handled those
with ease. We have some ongoing irrigation problems right now that we're
fixing. We always get little leaks and things arise, especially this time of
year when the system gets heavily used. For example, in the month of June, the
irrigation output total was close to 1.7 million gallons of water for the
entire month. Now that we've moved into July and have gone through this dry
stretch, the first 10 days of July, we have used the same amount of water we
used in the entire month of June. So, we must be careful, and keep the moisture
levels up, because if we let areas get too dry, they become hydrophobic and
it's hard to get them wet again.
Now we have had very diligent use of wetting agents this
year. We've upped the budget spending on wetting agents on the fairways and the
green surrounds and basically everywhere around the golf course, and it's
paying off. The moisture levels in the fairways, even through this dry stretch
and even through all the cart traffic, have really been good, and I'm very pleased
with that.
Driving Range Tee Performance
The only other thing I'll say is I'm very happy with the
performance of the Bermudagrass Driving Range Tee in front of Top Tracer. It's
been very resilient and handles the amount of traffic so much better than the
older tee, and we may be able to stay on that tee and keep cycling from front
to back all the way into the fall without having to switch to the upper tee on
Winding Meadows. So that's really positive. I like it when we can keep it down
there, and yes, I think that was a good change in turf and I am very happy
about that.
Thank you for your continued support, and please stay
cool out there!
— Josh Laughridge, Golf Course Superintendent
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