Rough. I'm sure many of you have noticed it's length. A few of you have even commented on it. So I thought I could take a moment and address the issue. So here are a few facts to help you better understand the largest part of our course.
Bluegrass grows aggressively in the spring!
Mild temperatures and prominent rainfall make this time of year the premier time for plants to put on mass. Because of this, spring is when the plant is diverting massive amounts of it's energy to material production. As such the grass requires much more frequent mowing to maintain a steady height.
Seed head production makes it worse!
Seed heads make the rough play as though it's even thicker, and when it's already long this can be rather disconcerting. The production of seed is a biological imperative for all grass. We counter this on the greens, tees, and fairways by applying plant growth regulators which suppress this imperative. There is no way to make applying these to the rough time or cost efficient so our only option is to cut these structures off, but...
We inevitably spend some time catching up!
Currently we have at least one rough mowing unit running for eight hours every weekday- that's our entire work day. Ideally we put two more units out for 5 hours a day which gives us a total of three rough mowers, and 18 hours of mowing per week day! This means that any day that we get rained out or are other wise kept from mowing we lose 18 ours of work.
As we get into June and July the growth rate of the grass will slow and prove much easier to keep up with. Until then we will do everything we can to tame the beast. Thank you for your patience!
See you on the course!
Elliott Dowling
