Summer's Here and Everything That Goes Along With It

Summer Begins

Following the summer solstice on June 21st, a significant heatwave is headed our way. Next week’s forecast includes four days hovering near 100 degrees. This intense heat, coupled with the persistent drought conditions that began this spring, will place considerable stress on both our turfgrass and our grounds staff.

Additionally, Monday night’s fast-moving storm brought radar-indicated winds of 60 to 80 mph, causing measurable wind damage across both courses. While both properties are covered in debris, the Farm took the brunt of the storm, losing four trees around holes 16 and 17. Because of this, a large percentage of our manpower has been temporarily redirected to storm cleanup. Despite these unexpected demands, we also successfully took delivery of a truckload of sod at each course for scheduled installation, making it an incredibly busy week for our team.

Protecting Our Bentgrass Greens: Understanding "Syringing"

The recent U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills brought a lot of discussion around a vital turf management practice called syringing greens. Back in 2004, several Shinnecock greens dried out so severely that green speeds became unmanageable, and the USGA was deemed to have "lost control" of the course. Learning from those windy conditions and sloped surfaces, USGA agronomists took the highly unusual step this year of pre-planning a syringing schedule during active play. This proactive strategy successfully prevented a repeat of the 2004 incident. 

While this tournament may be the first time much of the public has heard the term, syringing is a daily, vital tool for those of us managing Bentgrass putting surfaces in the South. 

---

What is Syringing?

Syringing is the process of applying light amounts of water to cool the turf canopy. It prevents excessive wilting during extreme heat or abnormally low humidity, when the plant loses water faster than its roots can absorb it. 

• The Goal: Cool the leaf blades, not soak the soil. 
• The Danger of Excess: Heavy watering does more harm than good. It can trap heat and effectively scald both the leaf surface and the root system.
• The Species: Unlike resilient Bermudagrass, Bentgrass is a delicate, cool-season turf. It is not physiologically designed to survive repeated 100-degree days with 75% humidity. 

---

What to Expect on High-Stress Days

On most summer days, our staff can easily work around your play, causing little to no disruption to your round. However, when high-risk conditions collide with a busy course, our crew does not have the luxury of waiting for golfers to clear the green.

For syringing to save the turf, it must be light and frequent. On extreme days, you will see the following protocol:

• Crew Footprint: We will deploy up to five staff members dedicated entirely to cooling the greens.
• Frequency: Teams must spend 5 to 10 minutes lightly watering a single green, returning to repeat the process every 30 to 45 minutes.
• Play Interruptions: Occasionally, a crew member must temporarily pause play. They will remove the flagstick and quickly cool the surface before letting you putt.

We kindly ask for your patience and cooperation with our agronomy team during these weather events. A 1–2-minute delay for a light misting ensures our greens stay healthy, smooth, and alive for the rest of the season.

Farm Aerification July 6-10

Summer Aerification Schedule: Preparing Our Courses for Peak Performance

Annual aerification is a labor-intensive but crucial process required to keep our playing surfaces healthy, vibrant, and smooth. Once a year, our team pulls out all the stops to aerify all short-cut areas, including greens, tees, approaches, and fairways. Because our two properties differ in size and turf type, each requires a distinct timeline and strategy to ensure full recovery. 

Here is what you need to know about this year's schedule and the logistics involved:

---

Property Timelines & Recovery

• The Irving Park Course: Being slightly smaller, we can complete the entire aerification process across all short-cut areas here in four days.
• The Farm Course: Because this is a much larger property, it requires a full five days of intensive labor to complete.
• Turf Considerations: The greens at The Farm consist of Bermudagrass. The ideal window to aerify Bermuda turf is during the hot summer months. We target this timeframe to allow the greens to fully recover by early August. 

---

Holiday Logistics & Scheduling Changes

We typically schedule this heavy maintenance in late June to avoid conflicting with major club events. Historically, this places the work right before the 4th of July holiday, which is generally a quieter weekend at the club due to summer travel.

However, our schedule must adapt when the holiday changes the calendar dynamic:

• The Holiday Shift: When July 4th falls on a weekday, we aerify before it. When the holiday falls on a weekend, it does not take away the weekdays we need to complete the work. Therefore, we push the schedule until after the holiday.
• This Year's Dates: Since July 4th falls on a Saturday, we will officially begin our aerification process on Monday, July 6.
• Looking Ahead: You can expect a similar post-holiday schedule next year, as the 4th of July will fall on a Sunday.

Thank you for your patience and support as our agronomy staff works around the clock to protect and improve our courses.

---

New Mat System for the Farm Driving Range

 

New Artificial Hitting Stations Installed on the Farm Range

We are pleased to announce the installation of ten new Turf Hound artificial hitting mats on the Farm Course’s primary range tee. This improvement enhances the overall practice experience while helping us better protect and preserve turf quality throughout the year.

Background and Need for the Upgrade

When the Farm Course renovation was completed in 2009, the expanded range tee—totaling 60,000 square feet—was a major upgrade from the original 10,000-square-foot surface. At that time, this increase was expected to provide more than enough space to maintain high-quality turf conditions year-round. For several years, this proved to be true.

However, two important changes have taken place since then:

Increased Usage

Golf rounds have steadily risen over the past decade, and practice facility usage has increased at an even faster pace. This higher volume of traffic places significantly more stress on the natural turf.

Reduced Teeing Space

The addition of the teaching center and indoor hitting bays in 2017 brought valuable instructional resources—but also reduced available turf hitting space by approximately 20,000 square feet, or one‑third of the teeing area. Due to safety concerns created by the building’s orientation, this portion of the turf is no longer usable for regular practice.

Together, these factors—more usage and less tee space—have resulted in turf conditions that are difficult to maintain during the off-season and early spring, when grass recovery is slow or nonexistent.

Quality: Selecting the Best Mats Available

To ensure an exceptional practice experience, GCC selected Turf Hound mats for the project. Turf Hound is widely regarded as one of the premier artificial hitting surface manufacturers in the industry, providing a realistic feel that closely replicates natural turf.

Quantity: Expanded Hitting Capacity

The new installation includes:

• 10 new artificial hitting stations on the primary range tee
• 3 existing stations inside the teaching center

This creates a total of 13 high‑quality hitting stations, offering ample capacity during winter months while reducing wear on natural turf.

Seasonal Schedule and Member Use

To protect the range tee and ensure strong turf conditions heading into spring, members will be required to hit off mats during the months of December through February.

Exceptions include:

• Holidays
• Saturdays with shotgun starts

During these times, mat use may not be practical for all players. Additionally, if unexpected warm-weather periods occur and we anticipate increased member usage, staff will evaluate conditions and may allow practice on natural turf when appropriate.

Summer Update

Greens Update – Irving Park Bentgrass

Between May 1 and July 15, we recorded nearly 25 inches of rainfall—more than double the seasonal average. This, combined with extended periods of high temperatures (mid-90s highs and mid-70s lows), has created extremely challenging growing conditions for our Bentgrass greens.

It’s common for Bentgrass to lose significant root mass during July and August, resulting in softer playing surfaces. While Bentgrass is no longer widely used in our region, several local courses still maintain it. Despite differences in resources, environments, and construction, all are reporting similar struggles this summer. Some have temporarily closed, others have reduced play, and many are simply managing as best they can.

This week’s cooler temperatures are a welcome relief—not for recovery, but to help stabilize conditions and prevent further decline. Each day we avoid additional stress brings us closer to the more favorable growing conditions of September.

In response to early June conditions, we implemented several proactive measures to support plant health:

• Raised mowing heights earlier than ever before
• Switched to a less aggressive roller to preserve leaf tissue
• Conducted a small core aerification in early July
• Performed a solid tine aerification early August

While these practices help sustain the turf, they do impact green speed and smoothness. Our priority is not peak performance in August, but optimal conditions as early as possible in September.

Lastly, the most frequent concern we hear about is unrepaired ball marks. This is something only players can address. Please take a moment to repair your ball mark—and any others you see—to help preserve the quality of our greens.

NCSU Turf Pathologist - Record Heat NC Bent

https://turfpathology.ces.ncsu.edu/2025/07/record-heat-for-most-of-nc-ugly-creeping-bentgrass-and-tall-fescue/

Thank you for your continued support and understanding.

All Too Common Unrepaired Ballmark

Chlorosis Indicating Root Disfunction 

Cart Usage at Greensboro Country Club

Over the years, Greensboro Country Club has adopted very member-friendly cart usage policy. Nearly six years ago, all golf cart exit posts were removed from both courses, giving members greater discretion in how and where they drive their carts—including proximity to greens.

Unfortunately, some members have begun to ignore these relaxed rules. We've observed carts being driven too close to greens, between bunkers and greens, across steep slopes, and even parked behind greens. These actions not only damage the course but also compromise the experience for others.

Club Expectations for Cart Usage

To preserve the quality of our courses and maintain the privilege of relaxed cart rules, we ask all members to follow these simple expectations:

• Stay at least 20 yards away from all greens (there should never be a cart left, right or behind the green that is not parked on the path).
• Respect the Cart Rules of the Day, even if you personally disagree with them.
• Avoid driving through wet or soft areas to prevent turf damage.
• Stay out of tall grass natural areas on the Farm course

These guidelines are straightforward and easy to follow. The Green Committee has discussed this issue, and if violations continue, we may be forced to reinstate cart exit posts, issue written warnings, or even implement GPS-cart based restrictions.  

We hope to avoid these measures. To the benefit of your fellow members please do your part by respecting the cart usage expectations—and kindly remind others in your group if you see them not following the rules.

Maintain 20 Yard Buffer. Do Not Park Beside the Greens

Please Stay Out of Tall Grass Areas 

Bunkers

Recent discussions have highlighted concerns about bunker conditions. While many understand that heavy rainfall affects bunker quality, the extent of the maintenance required after storms is less visible. At The Farm, the bunkers—now 16 years old—were built to high standards for their time. Although they handle erosion better than older designs, years of weathering have led to sand contamination, gradually reducing playability.  Also, over the years the design elements related to minimizing washing has become less effective resulting in slightly more erosion and slightly more repair work each year.

Irving Park presents a greater challenge. These bunkers, constructed 27 years ago with minimal erosion control design elements, are highly susceptible to washouts. Despite ongoing efforts to minimize contamination and replenish sand, each storm introduces significant amounts of silt, clay, and organic debris. This year alone, we've had to restore bunkers 12 times, dedicating over 500 man-hours to storm-related repairs. To put this in perspective, if we look at the past 27 years and take that as a low average spent working on washouts each year that’s equivalent to seven full-time staff working exclusively on bunker restoration throughout an entire year.  And that's just the financial-labor side of it.  It does nothing to illustrate the amount of contamination that has taken place in these bunkers over the past two and half decades.

All Too Common This Year

Tough Week to Get Anything Accomplished

Soggy Week

Rain has definitely been in the golf headlines over the past few weeks.  The PGA Championship managed to get through to a very nice Sunday finish, but not without some controversy surrounding wet course conditions earlier in the week.  This week the Korn Ferry Tour is in Raleigh for the UNC Health Championship, and they are facing very similar conditions.  As for our little part of the world this week was scheduled to be one of our busiest of the year with the Irving Park course scheduled for aerification.  Over the last several days we have accumulated right around 4.5 inches of rain on a course everyone knows drains really poorly.  It's a tough week because we lose Monday to Memorial Day, but the Irving Park course is small enough that the task can easily done in 4 days, maybe 3.5 if something small occurs.  We then lost Tuesday to an all-day rain and Wednesday was only slightly better.  While Thursday was better the cloud cover and expected evening rains will do little to dry the course out.

Our normal process for this week is to aerify all the short grass on the course, which measures a little over forty acres.  With the conditions we experienced, we were forced to prioritize just the greens and a few select tees.  The golf calendar for both golfers and the course maintenance program is extremely busy, so there are no plans to reschedule this work going forward.  We have a strong annual cultural maintenance program in place, so if we occasionally miss an opportunity the repercussions will not be all that significant, especially on the Irving Park course.

Saturated Fairways

In addition to the rain affecting our aerification schedule it has created a lot of other problems for us as well.  The bunkers, which are always vulnerable to washouts, are all damaged from the week's rain creating a lot of work for the staff just to get them back in shape for the weekend.  We also have more than normal debris on the ground from all the wind and rain.  While we normally mow out the course three times a week, due to rain and all the other work simultaneously going on we have only been able to mow a few select areas of rough this week.  After last night's (Thursday 3/29) additional 1 inch of rain everything else will have to wait until next week to be mowed resulting in some 10 days of unfettered growth.

Washed Out Bunkers

With all that said, we will accomplish our biggest priority going into the summer by getting all the Bent greens aerified and back open by Saturday prior to the onset of the hotter weather right around the corner.  In this line of work, it still to this day, amazes me how much the weather affects the outcome of the final product we as Superintendents and Golf Course Maintenance staff work so hard on to try and deliver for our members and their guest. 

Farm Course

The Farm course has also been affected, but in a more subtle way.  The bunkers have less of a washing issue than at Irving Park, but they have been saturated and difficult to rake.  The course has a more modernized set of drainage infrastructure, but Zoysia is like a sponge and during weeks like this even the best drainage system is slow to make a difference.  The course has been mowed out once and will need to dry out over the weekend before it's next cut.  Once we do finally get out and cut everything again the quality of cut will suffer due to the excess growth between cutting cycles and the fibrous nature of Zoysia grass, which makes it difficult to cut even under ideal situations.  The biggest and most notable outcome will be softer and slower greens.  While the greens are still mowed daily during these types of weeks, they are not double cut and rolled every day, which is our normal procedure.  On top of that we were unable to verticut and sand the greens this week, which will have a noticeable effect on green speed and the smoothness of ball roll.

Spring Transition - It's Not Always Perfect but So Far So Good this Year

Coming Out of Dormancy

The Bermuda and Zoysia are trying their best to come out of dormancy, but the ups and downs of the weather pattern typical to the spring don't make this a consistent transition period.  This week we are experiencing high 80's and next week they are projecting a low of 32.  Last week in an email we discussed the growth surge of the Ultradwarf greens at the Farm, which we hope that we are now on the tail end of the lusher than normal growth slowing down green speeds.  With all the new growth on the short cut areas of tees and fairways we are now going out with our first mow of the season.  This is the lowest we will cut these areas all season and the first few times out will result in a lot of excessive growth mown from the surface left over from the higher heights we went into the fall season last year. The before and after can sometimes be dramatic but with the proper weather the green surface will quickly return in a few short days.

Problematic winterkill which we are always concerned with after a long winter does not appear that it will be a significant issue this year despite the well below normal temperatures in the month of January.

Also, the spring flowering trees and shrubs such as Cherries, Dogwoods, Pears and other trees are nearly in their full flowering stage.  Some of the earlier flowering shrubs such the Forsythias are on their way out but will soon be followed by the Azaleas.

Shaving off the Winter Canopy

Dogwoods and Redbuds in Bloom

 

Farm Tennis/Swim Entrance

!6 Irving Park

Spring Mulch

Each spring each course applies around 600 yards of shredded hardwood mulch on both courses.  This a a very labor-intensive job but the aesthetic and cultural returns are well worth the effort.  We will follow this up in May with over 3,000 bales of pine straw applied to the courses underneath pine trees and other areas where pine straw is more conducive.

Staff Hard at Work Spreading Mulch

Golf Course Maintenance Etiquette from the USGA

Golf Carts

Carts help golfers get around the course, but they can also cause damage – especially when people don’t follow a course’s cart rules. Cart policies can change daily, so make sure to ask about them before teeing off. There are a lot of reasons why a course may not want you driving in certain areas – some issues are obvious and some may not be. Wet or newly grassed areas surrounded by cart signs should clearly be avoided, but tire ruts show up in these spots more often than they should. Courses may also want you to avoid extremely dry areas, or they may ask you to stay on the path in late fall or winter when grass is hardly growing and can’t handle traffic. 

No two courses are exactly alike, so the rules will vary. Follow any ropes, stakes or directional signs – they are there for a reason. Avoid turf areas that appear thin, weak or wet. Try to spread out when driving through high-traffic areas and keep all four tires on the path as much as possible. Don’t drive through naturalized areas, don’t get too adventurous on steep slopes, and don’t get too close to tees or greens. Beyond these basics, erring on the side of caution is always a good approach.

 

Repairing Divots

Taking a divot is part of the game but the scars should be carefully repaired. The goal is to leave a smooth surface and encourage the grass to heal. In general, if a divot is mostly intact, replace it and tamp down with your foot to smooth it out and restore contact between the roots and the soil. If there are gaps around the replaced divot, fill those with divot mix to help the grass fill in and create a smooth surface for playing. Some courses may prefer that you use mix rather than trying to replace divots. This could be because the grasses on that course tend to explode into pieces after a shot rather than forming a nice divot that is likely to heal. Sometimes the environment or weather isn’t conducive to replaced divots healing so it’s better to fill the hole with mix.

There are many factors that influence divot recovery, which is why policies can vary. The bottom line is to leave places where you take a divot as smooth as possible for the next player and to encourage recovery. If you can refrain from taking divots on your practice swings and avoid hitting practice shots on the course, that helps decrease the total number of divots that need to heal. Another good habit is to fill your divot and one more.

Replacing intact divots or filling the hole with sand helps the damage heal faster and leaves a smooth playing surface for others.

 

Ball Marks

While fairly small, a ball mark can leave a lasting impact on a putting surface if it is not repaired. Unrepaired ball marks disrupt surface smoothness, and the negative impact can last for weeks. The proper repair technique has several key points to consider. Start by using any pointed tool, including a golf tee. Insert the tool behind the ball mark and gently push toward the center, then work around the edges of the mark gently pressing the turf back in toward the middle. Don’t lift or twist the turf because that can damage the roots. Once you have worked the turf back into place with the repair tool, gently tamp the area with your putter to smooth the surface. While you have your ball mark repair tool handy, see if you can repair one or two more marks that may have been missed.

 

Bunker Raking (GCC Rake Placement Guidelines Rakes In May - Oct / Rakes Out Nov - April)

After hitting a bunker shot, try to leave the sand as smooth, or smoother than when you found it. Knowing the basics of bunker raking and putting in a little effort is all it takes. Enter the bunker from the low side and try to bring a rake with you so you don’t have to search for one after hitting your shot. Use the rake to smooth and level any disturbances you create in the sand. As you exit the bunker, avoid pulling a clump of sand up against the edge as this can damage the grass and create awkward lies for other players.

Follow the course’s policy on where to put the rake when you’re done. If they don’t have a specific policy, the USGA recommends placing them outside bunkers and away from where they are likely to interfere with play. Before exiting the bunker, knock any sand off your shoes to keep it from winding up on greens or fairways where it can disrupt play and potentially damage mowing equipment.

Keeping Staff Safe

The maintenance staff does their best to take care of the course while avoiding play, but there are times when golf and maintenance will cross paths – especially with how busy courses have been. When you encounter staff, always ensure they see you before hitting in their direction. They may be focused on their task or unable to hear you yell “fore” at first, so give an extra shout or wave if you aren’t sure they noticed you. After the staff responds, be patient while they move out of the way.

 

Going the Extra Mile

Beyond the basics, here are a few other things you can do during your next round to leave the golf course better than you found it.

Pick up broken tees and discard them in waste containers to keep them from cluttering the course and damaging mowers.

If a garbage can is full, hold on to your trash rather than piling it high for wind and birds to disperse across the course.

Do not leave cigars or cigarette butts on playing surfaces and keep those sunflower seeds off the greens.

Ropes and stakes are there for a reason, so walk through designated openings and not over or on top of the rope, which will loosen and pull the stakes over.

It is the maintenance staff’s job to care for the course, but golfers need to do their part as well. During your next round, set a good example by using the tips in this article and encourage others to make the effort as well. No matter how long you have been playing or what your handicap is, taking care of the course makes you a great golfer!