Many courses across the Region have experienced between 10 and 20 inches of rain over the past 3 to 4 weeks. The frequent, heavy rainfall is double trouble because the warm rain encourages a surge of turf growth while mowing operations are often suspended for days at a time. Whether to wait one more day to firm up the playing surfaces before mowing or risk another deluge has been a difficult decision for golf course managers.

Among the benefits of applying growth regulators to greens and fairways is the reduced potential for scalping turf when routine mowing schedules are interrupted by the weather. Unfortunately, most courses had little opportunity to treat playing surfaces with growth retardants before the monsoons due to exceptionally cool weather and high winds during April and May. Early season applications of growth regulators to suppress Poa annua seedheads definitely paid extra dividends this spring.

Make an extra effort to raise the height of cut when resuming routine mowing operations after a few days of heavy rain. The grass will be high and susceptible to scalping. Furthermore, mowers will be sinking slightly into the soft turf, which lowers the effective height of cut. Severely scalped turf will be slow to recover when the hot, stressful weather arrives.

Flooded creeks, rivers, and ponds have been a concern on courses where these problems rarely, or never, occurred in the past. Throw into the mix reduced revenue from cancelled outside events, little member/public play during wet weather, not to mention the almost total loss of cart revenues and the past month is certainly one to forget.