I heard yesterday on WHO Radio that Iowa had just recorded the highest soil temperature ever. It was almost 90 degrees at a 4” depth. So I went out and looked at ours. We were not too far behind. I also took some digital thermometer readings of the turf canopy and I was shocked as to how hot it was. We had some canopy temperatures on July 6th of 107 degrees. That is the highest that I have seen in my career and I really don’t want to break that record.
I have included a photo of our daily soil temperatures on #11 green North. You can see that we encroached the 90 degree mark on a very consistent basis. This usually occurred every afternoon between 3:00 and 4:30. This also coincides with our syringing of the fairways when we had some of the daily highs over 100. This little irrigation cycle in the middle of the day is used to lower that canopy temperature slightly and it helps to cool the plant.
Well this morning I can feel a slight breeze from the North. Have not felt that in a while and I will be thankful to get back to the “Normal summer temperatures” rather than trying to set any more records. I do hope it rains soon so we don’t set a drought record.
I will leave you this morning with a photo of #13 South. To have the golf course in such nice condition after we set some records is a tribute to the great people that I work with everyday. They are the Record Setters!
