July 2024 - The Hottest July on Record

Multiple news outlets have been reporting that July of 2024 was the hottest July on record in California and  the Western US. Some relief is in sight according to CA's new go to climatologist Dr. Daniel Swain who predicts  more moderate temps and some moonsonal thunderstorms in the near future. 

 Any of us who have been around Granite Bay know how hard summers historically can be on this golf  course, and we have just experienced the hottest July in the courses existence. Currently the course is not without summer issues, particularly in the cool season rough but if we were to honestly compare this summer so far to prior summer's which were not as harsh, the course has held up better. 

This is primarily due to converting the fairways from a mix of cool season grasses to warm season Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda, but also the introduction  Turf Type Tall Fescue to the rough and continued work on irrigation coverage. The work of improving irrigation coverage along with continued interseeding  of tall fescue into our rough will continue which logically bodes well for the future.

Above is weather data generated by our on course weather station. The average high temperature for the 31 days of July 2024 was 101.57 degrees almost 9 degrees warmer then the historical average highs for July in Granite Bay. I like to look at the number of  recorded days above 100 degree's as a  matrix for determining the the severity of the summer. Summer of 2024 has had 28 days over 100 degrees through July compared to 11 days in 2023, 16 in 2022 & 20 in 2021 the year of our renovation. 2020 had only 13.

NOAA historic average temperature's for Granite Bay CA. But remember if you are sitting on a block of ice while your hairs on fire, on average you are fairly comfortable or so says GBGC's beloved John Korvin.

Spiking Greens

On Monday 8/12/24 we plan to spike and topdress the greens keeping in line with our small, but more frequent aeration events throughout the year. These aeration events are designed to keep putting surface disruption to a minimum year round avoiding  traditional large hole aeration in the spring and fall. This accomplishes the desired goals not disrupting putting quality for extended periods of time and mitigating poa annua encroachment by not giving it a chance to get going in larger aeration holes. Below are pictures of the process conducted today, Monday 8/12/24. 

Step #1 is to aerate with the Procore 648. We are using a coring tine this time around to actually remove some organic material from the green. Weather is forecasted to be in the mid 80's today with no excessive heat the remainder of the week making this a perfect time to jump on a core aeration in August.

Aeration holes are small. 1/4" in diameter maximum if that. The small hole combined with 2"X2" spacing will recover rapidly and will not deflect ball roll leaving putting quality intact especially after we thoroughly roll the surface's the morning after aeration. 

Step 2 remove the coring material. We basically use blowers and scoop shovels to remove all of the debris from the surfaces

Step 3 we usually mow the surfaces to remove any straggler cores that get stuck in the holes during initial cleanup. After mowing we blow the surfaces off again creating the finished product prior to sand topdressing depicted in the picture above with the ball mark repair tool. 

Step 4  we are seeding the collars. More to come in the future on what are our ultimate plans with these collars.

Step 5 lightly topdress the surface with sand.

Step 6 we brush the sand into the open holes and turf canopy.

Step 7 is to irrigate. We typically irrigate deeply after opening greens up with aeration. This deep watering brings the greens soil profile to its field capacity as well as drawing air into the rootzone which is one of the main purposes of core aeration.

View of Tilley's PG on Tuesday AM following a good rolling and blowing. 

A closeup view reveals some open holes after the seed irrigation event the evening before. A light follow up topdressing followed by brushing and blowing will fill them nicely. Size of the hole again does not deflect ball roll so they putt nicely and recovery will be rapid.