Rough, Rough and More Rough!

Over the past two months we have had ten inches of much needed rain, two weeks ago we made a fertilizer application to the roughs and now we have had a few days where the high temperature has hit 80 degrees. The end result of the these three things is that our ryegrass roughs are ACTIVELY growing.

In preparation for the AT&T classic we have raised the cutting height by a 1/4". We will be mowing the rought at this height till next Wednesday and then we will raise the cutting height another 1/4". We will then be at the desired cutting height of 2 1/2" for the tournament. We plan on maintaining this height through the tournament and then lowering the height back to our normal height of 2" as soon as possible after the tournament. The cutting height of 2 1/2" is slightly lower than has been requested in years past. This change will hopefully benefit speed of play in the Pro-am tournaments on Wednesday and Thursday of tournament week. This lower cutting height will also allow us to return to our normal standard in a quicker time frame.

This photo shows the three different cutting heights that are currently in place. The active growth of the ryegrass allows for better visual definition of the three different cuts.

In the picture from left to right you are looking at the fairway which is mowed at a height of 1/2", then the intermediate rought which is mowed at 1" and finally on the right is the primary rough which is currently being mowed at 2 1/4"

The tip of the day and for the next month is: Keep it in the short cut.