“I’m fed up with summer,” said one owner/GM as the prolonged stretch of excessive heat and humidity extended into September’s second half. To try to limit the damage and give turf a chance to catch a breath, courses are trying to minimize foot traffic by restricting play or shutting down individual holes or even entire courses for days at a time.
“I’m fed up with summer,” said Mike Hatch, the owner and General Manager of Birkdale Golf Club in Chesterfield, Va. and Brandermill Country Club in Midlothian, Va., in relaying to Richmond BizSense what seems to be the consensus among his fellow local golf course operators in recent weeks.
As 90-degree-plus temperatures and ample humidity extended into September’s second half, Richmond BizSense reported, the weather continued to give Hatch and his peers extra reason to sweat in what has been an endless summer for an industry that lives and dies with climatic conditions.
Not only did the extended steamy blanket that hovered over the Richmond area for much of the last two months make it tough to convince golfers to come out play a round under the sun, it also put the grounds of many local golf courses at risk, particularly for damage to their greens, Richmond BizSense reported.
The heat, humidity and few but fast-moving summer rainstorms have forced more than a handful of area courses to take measures both drastic and creative to prevent damage on greens that are still healthy, and to minimize it on those that have been hard-hit, Richmond BizSense reported. The tactics have included minimizing foot traffic by limiting play, shutting down individual holes, and in some cases shutting entire courses down for days at a time, to give the turf a breather.
“It’s just one of those summers that you have to try to get through,” said Jimmy Gable, Superintendent at Jefferson Lakeside Country Club in Richmond. Gable and his General Manager, Bob Foster, have had to make tough calls in recent weeks as a precautionary measure to keep the course in good shape, Richmond BizSense reported. The club has fared better than many of its local competitors, some of which are still dealing with damage to their greens.
Jefferson Lakeside limited tee times during the hottest parts of the day in late August, Richmond BizSense reported—and that included limiting hours over Labor Day weekend, which is usually a busy golfing time. It gave Gabel and his crews time to hand-water the greens and give the precious turf time to cool off and rest.
“The part that people don’t really think about is the amount of stress that foot traffic puts on greens,” Foster told Richmond BizSense.
Foster cited nearly 40 days of sustained daytime temperatures over 90 degrees, which he said is unusual, even for Richmond. But perhaps more worrisome were recent nighttime temperatures that some evenings didn’t dip below the 80s – the days, Foster said, “When you wake up and it’s 89 degrees at 6 in the morning.”
“Bentgrass, which is what almost all of us have on our greens, doesn’t get a chance to recuperate if it doesn’t get a chance to cool down,” Foster told Richmond BizSense. In response, Gabel and his crew got creative, doing maintenance by hand, rather than bringing heavy equipment out on the course, and raising the height of grass in certain areas.
“I’ve been a superintendent for over 10 years managing bentgrass in the Deep South in Atlanta,” Gabel told Richmond BizSense. “This is kind of normal to me. You build a strong plant and prepare for the absolute worst and hope for the best.”
Across the James River, Willow Oaks Country Club in Richmond restricted play for a couple of weeks last month, to help heal some of its greens and maintain the health of others, Richmond BizSense reported.
General Manager Chris Welles said a few of the club’s greens were hit hard by the heat. “Like a number of courses in town, we struggled with a tough bout of heat stress,” he told Richmond BizSense. “The worst was about a month ago.
“We restricted traffic for two weeks completely, and then reduced it by closing some of the holes,” Welles reported.
Willow Oaks, which is now back open for full play as usual, wasn’t alone among area clubs in making such a move, Richmond BizSense reported. The Federal Club and The Dominion Club in Glen Allen, Va., and Salisbury Country Club in Midlothian, Va. all restricted play at points in recent weeks.
Chris Gilman, owner of The Federal Club, said his course shut down completely for nine days in August, but reopened fully at the end of the month. The closure allowed his crew to aerate and condition the course and let it rest.
The decisions have reflected the balance that course managers must juggle to keep members and guests happy, Richmond BizSense reported. It’s a fine line between maintaining a healthy course and being open for members and other golfers to play when they want to play.
Clubs like Willow Oaks and Jefferson Lakeside have sent out regular detailed explanations about the conditions to outline their decisions and strategies, Richmond BizSense reported.
“The response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Foster said of his members. “They understand that the decisions we’ve made are in the best interest of the course.”
For Mike Hatch of Birkdale GC and Brandermill CC, the summer has been especially noteworthy because the conditions have affected both high-end private courses and lower-end public courses, Richmond BizSense reported.
“I’ve lost greens many times [in past years] when it gets extremely hot, because my budgets are lean and mean,” Hatch said of his mid-tier clubs. “This year, what surprised everyone is how it has hit the high-end courses.”
The few strong rainstorms that swept quickly through the area this summer only added fuel to the risks caused by the heat, Hatch noted.
“It’s not always the heat. It’s the rain that does the most damage,” he said. “Those heavy storms when it was 100-plus degrees just wiped out so many golf courses.”
Overheated greens that get dumped on by heavy rains aren’t always able to absorb all the water, particularly at courses where members like their greens cut short for speed, Hatch noted. And when that’s the case, the rain either runs off or can pool up.
“There’s so much pressure for fast greens,” he said. “So the superintendent has to mow them short, but when it rains the water has nowhere to go.”
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