- Video shows Arbor Hills Golf Club, and how the high temperatures have impacted their course.
- Chris Cummings, Owner, shares exactly what negative impacts they're trying to mitigate.
- Cummings says the heat is causing them to spend more on grounds-keeping, which is hard during a time that not many golfers want to golf.
"Heat for golf courses is not a good thing," says Owner of Arbor Hills Golf Club, Chris Cummings. However, there are still some golfers in the neighborhood making it happen. Golfer Clyde Vanepps jokes, "Well, I would never call my game 'hot,' but it was okay for me."
That heat hasn't stopped all week. Cummings shares that the worst part of the heat is actually the storms that come with it. "With that brings a whole bunch of issues, disease for turf, moisture issues... We can't put carts out because of the damage they do to the course, and it cancels golf. It's a snowball effect from the heat."
To golfers' dismay, this heat can also impact play, as Cummings says the humidity makes the greens "almost like velcro." When it's this hot, it's hard to even keep the turf alive as greens become stressed. Cummings says, "It's tough because, in the heat, it's very difficult to spray. If you try to take out the weeds, it takes out the turf. It's just very difficult to maintain turf with heat like we've had the past few days."
Tips for golfing in high heat:
These issues make things hard on the budget, as maintenance costs go up, and more open-play golfers start to opt out, due to the heat. "We're spending more on maintenance, and it's hard on the equipment, as well. You're running equipment in 90 degree heat, it might be 110, 120 degrees on that equipment. It's hard on the engines, it's hard on the hydraulics, and really hard on the operators," says Cummings. To him, the job can almost seem like a puzzle. He says, "For superintendents, this is one of those things that keeps us up at night, because all we do is think about the golf course."
However, when Vanepps was asked what brought him out on a day like today, he shared that the heat can't stop him from enjoying a round for "just a love of golf." He continued, "A course like this is always in great shape. We just have an enjoyable time. Stay hydrated in the heat, and be smart enough to drink plenty of water."
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