July 9, 2016

I am posting videos of last Tuesdays rain so that, hopefully, you'll understand why we go to cart paths only, even if the sun has come out and, on the surface, things look normal. What is unseen, is the saturated soils beneath the turf that a rain can cause. On Tuesday, the soil became so saturated that the rain could no longer infiltrate the soil, and for it to drain through and begin to dry, it took days just to get halfway drained.

 

11th green, looking up the fairway 

                                                                11th fairway

                                                     10th fairway and cartpath

When the soils become this saturated, roots can no longer breathe, and followed by the relentless heat and high humidity, roots bake in the soil moisture, compromising their health to the point that some areas of turf die off . Its the worst case scenario.

Cart traffic compacts soil in these conditions and creates an even worse, unrecoverable environment for the roots and turf - damage will show up in few days to a few weeks. So many players tell me that their carts don't cause any damage, but what you see on top of the surface is a very different story compared to the damage below, where the player usually never looks.

Bottom line is that these types of weather conditions by themselves create less than perfect turf , and with any more added stress, such as traffic, only make it worse.

(PS. Next time I will hold my phone sideways for videos!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm always learning!)