The USGA Green Section
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| An Important Message For Golfers and Superintendents | Let's step back from the edge of failure
by James T. Snow, national director, USGA Green Section |
James T. Snow | It's been a rough year for golf courses and the professionals who care for them. A harsh winter caused destruction on many bermudagrass courses while this past summer proved one of the worst ever for growing bentgrass and Poa annua. In fact, damage this summer was so widespread and severe that we are devoting this entire issue of the Record to this topic; earlier issues and webcasts addressed the winter injury to bermudagrass and can be found at the archive.
Although our agronomists will discuss specifics of each region in the video presentations found below, we believe it is extremely important to make golfers aware of one of the most prominent factors that generated so much damage to greens - the expectation for very fast greens all year round. To meet these expectancies, superintendents are mowing lower throughout the summer months when the bentgrass and Poa annua are most susceptible to injury. The combination of low mowing, abnormally high temperatures, and other stresses simply proved too much, and in many instances resulted in the complete loss of putting greens throughout the five Green Section regions represented below.
We can all learn a lot from this past season. Perhaps the most important lesson is to recognize that pushing greens too hard can place them on the edge of failure.
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| How Bad Was It? A Pictorial Summary |  by the USGA Staff
This video is a collection of photos taken this summer by the Green Section staff as they visited courses in their regions. You will see a lot of severely damaged greens. However, all of these greens will recover once favorable growing conditions return. Play video. (Or, watch on your IPhone.) | |
| A Region by Region Review of What Happened and Why | |
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Note: While you might be tempted to view only the region in which you live, each of the presentations offers advice and insight that will prove helpful, regardless of your location.
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| Summer of 2010: From Bad to Worse | | by the USGA Green Section staff |
Cooler temperatures will soon return making it possible for superintendents to restore damaged greens back to the quality and beauty golfers love. | Summer survival of bentgrass and Poa annua putting greens took on a whole new meaning throughout a great deal of the country in the summer of 2010. Much of what a golf course superintendent does throughout the year is designed to get the putting greens through the summer. This fall will be dedicated to bringing back a great deal of turf that was damaged by the challenging conditions. Depending on location, budget, and conditions, the following are items that your golf course superintendent may implement to help the golf course conditioning.
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| Green Section Record Archive (digital) | Looking for a previous issue of the Green Section Record since it has gone digital?
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Looking for something? |
Would you like to see the digital Record issues you missed? Or, maybe you heard about an article or video in a previous update. All of the issues are stored in one convenient location - the Green Section Record Archive.
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| The USGA Green Section Portal | |
A Valuable Resource For All, And It's Free
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Take a minute to visit the Green Section's portal at http://gsportal.usga.org. There you will find information regarding upcoming live webcasts and links to recordings of more than 30 previously delivered webcasts, as well as announcements regarding upcoming USGA Green Section activities, education conferences, and meetings.
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| USGA Green Section
P.O. Box 708
Far Hills, NJ 07931-0708 908.234.2300
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�2010 by United States Golf Association�
Permission to reproduce articles or material in the USGA Green Section Record is
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Green Section Record (ISSN 2156-5813) is published weekly via electronic mail by the
United States Golf Association�, Golf House, Far Hills, NJ 07931.
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