I did some research on the University of Florida's weather station to see just how different our local weather has been and it is pretty surprising even to me. Back in the fall I did a post called "Winter golfing season is almost here" click here for "Winter golfing seaon is almost here" and explained in detail the science behind the timing of the summer maintenance practices. After riding the course with Trevor this morning and doing our usual weekly planning session I wanted to see just how far away from summer growing conditions we have gotten. My "barometer number" of 140 for great winter plant health is based off of historical solar radiation output from the sun and years of experience putting the course through the greatest stress at the worst time of year. Here is what we are getting now as compared to a few years gone by....quite different.
If you are wondering why the golf course is seeming to be "dull" for this time of year you only have to look at the highlighted numbers. During the time frame of January 2013-2015 we averaged 140.35 units of solar radiation as compared to dismal 114.49 the course received in 2016. The sun's energy is just not getting to the grass to fuel the photosynthetic process. Days like today with 100% cloud coverage really cut down on the required solar radiation for the plant to be able to endure the punishment of winter time golf.
Now have a look at the rainfall totals. We were blessed with an amazing 10 inches of rain in January.....that's crazy!!!!! All of that rain and cold weather cost the Club over 800 rounds of golf.
Also highlighted with the total amount is the amount that falls in less than 15 minutes. The table shows that we do typically get a shower, maybe even a good rain...but 10 inches of rain is such an anomaly. Also, in one of those winter storms we received almost .6" of rain in 15 minutes. That is like a mid-summer rain event. I remember back in 1998 during the last "Great El Nino", I was an Assistant Supt at Collier's Reserve back then, and the area received almost 7 inches of rain in February when historically we received almost nothing. It caused a lot of problems with turf thinning out and an overall lack of turf vigor, just like what we are experiencing now. Even with my large bag of tricks to make the course look good, we are primarily dependent on Mother Nature to give us the basics like sunshine to make the course look good.
The sun is the essence of all the good that we are wanting right now, and quite frankly have come to expect. Until Mr. Golden Sun decides to peek out from around the clouds the course is going to be at less than peak performance. In anticipation of the sun eventually coming out, I had the entire course fertilized last week. I wanted to make sure that the only limiting factor to make the course come back to life is the one thing we can't give it, sunshine.
