Managing stress is as important for the grass on a golf course as it is for you and me. Like any living thing, when grass is under too much stress it doesn’t perform well and its health can decline. With golfers demanding excellent playing conditions every day, golf course superintendents are sometimes pushing their course to its stress limits, but they also have to know when to ease off.
When favorable weather conditions are experienced, playing conditions will typically be better. More-aggressive maintenance practices can be performed during good weather because there is not a compounding effect of maintenance and weather stress on the grass. However, when unfavorable weather is experienced – whether it be rain, high heat or sweltering humidity – it increases how much stress the turf experiences. Since the weather cannot be controlled, the only way to manage the total amount of stress on the grass is by being less aggressive with maintenance. Some may think the weather is used as an excuse for slower greens or fairways that aren’t as firm and fast as normal, but weather plays a major role in the stress level of the turf so it also has a big impact on what maintenance practices can be performed on any given day.
Rounds played are also a factor in a golf course’s stress tolerance. Traffic, whether it be foot traffic or cart traffic, weakens the turf. When traffic is excessive or concentrated it can result in thinning and bare spots because the grass is experiencing more stress than it can tolerate. Superintendents must adjust their maintenance practices to help the turf cope with the amount of traffic it receives, often by adding a little more water or fertilizer, or adjusting mowing heights. A good example is the balance between fairway firmness and cart traffic. If a course has lots of cart traffic, there will be a limit to how dry and firm the fairways can be maintained in order to manage the total amount of stress.
Whether it’s preparing a course for a tough stretch of weather or handling heavy amounts of play, maintenance practices must be adjusted to manage turf stress and sometimes a temporary change in playability will result. Superintendents are tasked with managing a golf course to withstand all the stresses experienced every day, all year long. Some stresses can be controlled, while others cannot. Sometimes the course won’t be at its best. Natural variation is part of the game – that’s just "the rub of the green".
