Scenes of March..........at the end of May

Yesterday we felt we had jumped back a couple of months, the wind was blowing, bitterly cold temperatures and heavy showers made it feel more like March than nearly June. England is certainly not the place to be for guaranteed sunshine and a normal summer. It seems like any predictable weather pattern is something we can only dream of, we can get any weather any time of the year, making greenkeeping very difficult for all types of golf course across the country.
The potential of grass growth at this time of year is below average (around 50% of what we would expect at this time of year). The growth potential is when the grass is actively growing, when soil temperatures rise above 6 degrees on a particular day.
The graph above shows hours of growth potential each day over the last 50 days, it shows why the grasses in the greens are growing at different rates due to the cool temperatures and general lack of growth. If we add the fact we are a tree lined course, causing shade and reducing temperatures further it can take another 25% of growth potential in specific areas of the course.
We have been battling through the horrendous conditions to produce a golf course we can all be proud of. The team were out cutting semi, fairways, surrounds strimming bits, cutting copses, tees and grooming and cutting greens. The course looking good for what looks like a bank holiday weekend of SUNSHINE.