Sun shiny day

Bermuda grass needs at least 8 hours of direct sun light a day to perform its best. It is by far the most sun loving grass there is.  The more sun it gets, the more abuse it can take. That is important to remember when it comes to greens as the putting surfaces are the areas that take the most abuse: we cut them the lowest, we constantly are trying to verti-cut, roll, brush for better and better playability, and every person that plays the course uses them. So when a green doesn't get full sun it can become a problem. 

Here is a picture of hole 17 this morning (I'm looking backwards at the hole). The right side of the green is covered in shade, this is also the side where everyone enters and leaves the green. The compounding foot traffic and shade is an issue. As you can see it's 10:45 and there is still shade on the green. The yellow arrow shows the location of the sun. 

As a turf manager I am always worried about this time of year because the days are getting shorter and shorter as the sun sets into the southern skyline. In this picture looking westerly you can see how much farther the sun's path will sink before the winter solstice. The blue line is the winter solstice, the yellow is the current path of the sun and the red line is the summer solstice. 

Here's another look to show how far the sun sinks in the sky. This view is directly overhead of the 17th green. Again, blue is the lowest point in the sky, yellow is today and red is the highest.  

To help combat the wear and tear the plant receives while the days are getting shorter and shorter an old trick is to increase the mowing height of cut just a little bit. Our usual height if cut this time of year is around 0.125" or 1/8". When we get deep into winter I will raise the height of cut on the putting surfaces to 0.135"or 0.140". This might not seem significant, but to the plant it is a massive increase in its ability to produce food from photosynthesis. The small increase in height if cut will yield approximately a 40% increase in food production within the plant. Remember, the leaves of the plant are like little solar panels. The larger the leaf (the plant's solar panel) , the more light it can capture to use for food production (power). 

In the end my job is all about having a healthy turf on the course and excellent playability. Yet, the biggest problem with a golf course is that you have to leave it outside!!! All of those "outside" factors lead to a lot of things outside of my control...like not enough sun or too much rain. My job is about understanding the neaunces of the course and being proactive so the membership doesn't see the result of all the things outside of my control. 

By the way, this entire blog posting was done on my phone while on the course.  I have an app called Sun Seeker on my phone that tracks the sun's movements. It's great at evaluating shade issues and helping explain the importance of tree shade control.