Firm and fast down south??

[PThomas]

the ABC news website has an article today entitled: "Atlanta Drought - 3 months of water left"

anyone have any firsthand info??

[Tim Gavrich]

We played two weeks ago down at Bryan Park outside of Greensboro and it was as firm and fast as any golf course I've ever played (including Shennecossett in January).

[Anthony_Nysse]

Paul,
  A lot of golf courses that typically overseed will not be this year. In fact, speaking with an assistant at Reynolds Plantation this morning, they are not allowed to water anything but their bentgrass greens and its been this way for most of the summer. He commented tht their bermudagrass has aken quite a hit.

Tony Nysse
Sr. Asst. Supt.
Long Cove Club
HHI, SC

[Jim Franklin]

Piper Glen in Charlotte has had 3/10 of an inch of rain the past three months. They have enough water in their one lake for four weeks of hand watering their greens and they are pumping water from another lake to give them an additional four weeks. The fairways are brown and hard, but I loved them that way. They desperately need rain. The lake by #17 and #18 is so down that grass has been growing on some of the spots that used to be under water.

[A.G._Crockett]

Here in Atlanta, things are getting interesting.

My course quit watering fairways back in August, and the even the bermuda is suffering for it.  I've got nothing to compare this to, but I would guess that at my club some spots in the fairways won't come back next spring.  

The greens most places are still fairing well, but there was a story in today's paper about further restrictions coming in the near future that would impact commercial watering, which has not yet been the case.  I don't know how that would affect golf courses, with or without their own water supplies; Chris Cupit likely knows more about this and where it might be headed.

The only good news to this drought is that I have absolutely NO conflicts between golf and yard work. Most of my fescue died in August, and what's left isn't growing.  There is NO outdoor watering, so no point in seeding or fertilizing, etc.  

As to the firm and fast, you can't imagine.  Courses are playing much, much shorter, and much easier if you can hit it straight at all, IMO.  

A very serious situation that will apparently get nothing but worse.  October is historically the driest month, and a warm, dry winter is forecast.

[David Miller]

I played at Carolina GC in Charlotte this weekend--the greens were quite firm and fast but I didn't find the areas around the greens to be particularly receptive to the bump-and-run.  I came up short every time I tried to play the kind of shot I played in Scotland over the summer.  Bermuda grass just doesn't roll out as well and isn't consistent enough IMO to play the bump-and-run.  Towards the end of the round I was just throwing it up in the air like I normally do in the States.

[Mike_Cirba]

Wherever the drought is, it doesn't extend to Orlando, Florida.

Falcon's Fire was the absolutely wettest course I played all year, with some drives actually plugging in the fairway.  

I was told it was due to some heavy-duty recent rains, but the locals playing with me also told me that the sprinklers regularly work the graveyard shift.

[Tim Bert]

Fairways at the Dixie Cup were very firm and fast.  It seemed like the tee shots were never going to stop rolling until they made it to a bunker or a slightly uphill spot.  Sunday, with a little experience under my belt, I only played a couple holes with driver as the 3 iron was running out pretty adequately.  

Mike Young even made a comment at dinner to the effect that we were probably seeing conditions that provded too much roll.  This style golf down here is very unusual, but it sure was fun.  I hope that they are able to harness these conditions and keep Long Shadow playing firm and fast.  

My only question would be whether or not most golfers would actually want the course maintained that way.  And does management care?

[herrstein]

Lookout and Black Creek are hard as week-old biscuits. Perfect.
The Honors is firm but not hard. The zoysia never seems to get hard as bermuda.
I can get the stats on the drought in Chattanooga from Scott Wicker or Mark Stovall. I think Scott told me we had had 0.3 inches in August and 1.5 in September, most of the Sept rain in one event.
Here's the rain at LMGC before that:
January   2.45   avg      4.89
February1.45   avg      4.81
March   1.63   avg      6.03
April   2.64   avg      4.31
May         0.96   avg      4.37
June   1.65   avg      3.52
July         7.63   avg      4.85
It got kind of green in August.....
Chattanooga has all the water it could want in the TN River, so we are reading in the paper about Atlanta's problems and wondering how long before their straw gets put into the TN River.