NEWS AND FEATURES
Lancaster CC 
Lancaster CC reopens; golf courses face more heat, humidity, stress

By Joe Logan
Published August 10, 2010

How bad is it out there for golf courses and the superintendents who care for them?

 

Bad enough that the Philadelphia Chapter of the  Golf Course Superintendents Association has cancelled its last two monthly board meetings.

 

"Nobody can leave their golf courses – everybody is hunkered down," said John Gosselin,  Philadelphia chapter president and superintendent at Aronimink GC, host of the recent AT&T National.

 

Nowhere have the dicey conditions – a toxic brew of oppressive heat, humidity and rain – taken a worse toll on the turf than at Huntingdon Valley CC, where the Toomey & Flynn Course has been closed since July 20 and is expected to remain so until Sept. 1.

 

And now comes word that another choice William Flynn-designed course, Lancaster CC, has been through a similar, if briefer, shut down.  At Lancaster CC, conditions deteriorated dramatically about the same time as at Huntingdon Valley, during the final 10 days of July.

 

The worst of the turf damage befell the LCC’s Old Course – the club has the Old Course, the Highlands 9 and the Sunset Six, for a total of 33 holes  -- forcing the club’s Green Committee to shut down its premier 18 for the final week of July. 

 

"Our view was that, under the circumstances, the risks associated with continued play and standard maintenance practices was not worth the potential that we could lose the course for the rest of the year," Rory Connaughton, a Lancaster attorney and member of the club’s Green Committee, explained in an email.   "It was an easy decision," he added.

 

Thanks to a spell of cooler nights and a lack of measurable rain during that week, the Old Course bounced back enough that LCC reopened the back nine for play last week.  The front nine remained closed for another week, reopening today.

 

Worst-hit at LCC, wrote Connaughton, were low-lying areas, which got a minimum of air movement.  During the shut-down, the LCC’s superintendent employed the measured recommended by the U.S. Golf Association: less cutting, ventilating greens.

 

Although Huntingdon Valley and Lancaster CC are the only courses that have opted to shut down, similar stories abound all over the region.

 

"On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst, it’s a 10," said Darin Bevard, senior agronomist with the USGA, based in Glen Mills, said of the current conditions.  "Not every golf course is in terrible condition, but every course has their share of battle scars.  It’s in varying degrees."

 

What’s the chief culprit?

 

"It has been too damn hot for too damn long," said Bevard.  "We’ve had a load of hot weather and the grass hasn’t had many breaks.  Guys are tired.  It’s one thing to start having stress in late June or July, but this started back in early June, when it got into the 90s and never subsided."

 

The conditions vary from course to course in the region, often depending on how much rain it has gotten.  Some courses received as much as 12 inches in five days, others as little as 3 inches.  Much of the real trouble begins when saturated fairways don’t drain and the temperature climbs into the 90s and stays there, effectively cooking the turf, resulting in "wet wilt."

 

"A great deal of the damage I have seen is wet wilt," said Bevard.

 

Relief generally comes in the form of lower nighttime temperatures, giving the grass a chance to breathe and relax.   If the thermometer doesn’t drop sufficiently at night, the stress on the grass is only heightened.

 

As Aronimink’s Gosselin mentioned, superintendents from New York to Virginia and out to Pittsburgh are under the same gun.  Fortunately, said Bevard, clubs and courses are reasonably understanding; he is unaware of any superintendent being fired because of conditions at his course.

 

Are superintendents at high-end clubs with big maintenance budgets in better position to react?

 

"They’ve got more staff, more bodies to hand-water greens and fairways," said Bevard.  "But the other thing is, the guys at swanky clubs also have greater pressure for better conditions, faster greens.  A guy with a smaller budget doesn’t have that, so it all evens out."

 

Neither Bevard and Gosselin see any let up in the hot, humid weather for at least a couple of weeks, maybe longer.

 

"Looking at the forecast, I don’t see any breaks in sight," said Bevard.

 

Gosselin sounded even more ominous.  "We are still on a downward slid for another week or so," he said.  "We haven’t hit rock bottom yet."

 

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