The Heat is On, Roud 2!!

As many of you have noticed and felt, the heat has been overwhelming the past couple of weeks. Temperatures are reaching upper 90's with the heat index above 100 degrees. I received an article talking about the heat and the conditions it is causing from Golf Journal. Here is a piece from the article:

The U.S. Golf Association last week issued a special "turf-loss advisory" to courses in the Mid-Atlantic states, urgently advising greenkeepers to institute "defensive maintenance and management programs" until the weather crisis ends. Most of the danger is to greens planted in creeping bentgrass and annual bluegrass (also known as poa annua). "Physiologically, these are cool-season grasses that do very well when the air temperature is 60 to 75 degrees," said Clark Throssell, director of research for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. "They can cope with a few days of 90-degree weather every summer, but when that kind of heat lasts for days at a time, they have extreme difficulty."

A lot of courses are closing for a few days each week, and in Louisville, two courses are shutting down for 3 weeks just to let the course recover. Another part in the article is stating how some top courses are doing the same:

Huntingdon Valley Country Club outside Philadelphia, which dates from 1897, shut two of its three nines two weeks ago because of serious turf disease caused by the hot, wet weather. The Philadelphia area in July had 17 days of 90-degree-plus weather, six more than average, mixed with flooding thunderstorms of up to 4 inches. Members at the Golf Club at Cuscowilla, east of Atlanta, received letters this week that the club's highly regarded Ben Crenshaw-Bill Coore course would be closed for eight to 10 weeks so that the wilted greens can be completely replanted. The Ansley Golf Club broke similar news to members about the club's in-town Atlanta course. "The continued, excessive heat and humidity have put our greens into a critical situation and the possibility of saving many of them is remote," said a letter from the grounds-committee chairman. Even Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y., the site of five U.S. Opens, is having serious weather-related problems with its turf.

Juniper Hill is struggling just the same but we are doing what we can to keep the turf cool during these stressful times. Please bare with us as we are all in the same boat. Everyone who is playing during these high temperatures, please stay hydrated. Please be aware of where you drive you cart, the more you stay on the path (even in this weather with high temperatures) the better the turf will be.