HOT SPOTS!!!!!

The Team

Yesterday, the team enjoy ribeye steaks and the fixings thanks to a very generous member's donation.  Let's just say they were quite full and happy.  Thanks to the members out there you support our team and all of their hard work.

Hot Spots

Hot Spots???!!!  This seems to be the question every year at this time.  Why do we have them?  What are we doing about them? Other courses do not have them?  Etc.

Hot spots in the turf can be caused by numerous reasons depending on the spot itself.  It can be thanks to slow or no head rotation; differing soil conditions; tree root intrusion; even the height of the grass thanks to higher transpiration to name a few.  For us at Avondale it is mainly due to the fact we overseed for winter conditions.

With recent higher temperatures (and yes I know it is cooler right now) and the heavy winds, along with the tree roots and numerous of factors, the ryegrass did not stand a chance to survive nor do we want it to .  As funny as that sounds it wasn't meant to be a all-year turf and has to die sometime to allow bermudagrass to fill in ... see the cart path edges where the rye died a month ago and now the area is filled with Bermuda.  If ryegrass could survive all year we would not have bermudagrass or need to overseed.

Ugly ... Gosh yes it is!!  Necessary, most definitely.  If it could die and retain it's color that would be the best of both worlds but we haven't found that turf species yet.  The good news is that in these same areas the bermudagrass is healthy and we are not spending thousands of dollars in water to prolong the death that will come anyway.