The 2025 golf season has been extremely challenging for many golf courses due to excessive rain, high heat and sweltering humidity. With so much turf stress already this year, if cultural practices are scheduled to be performed in August, you might need to call an audible.
Monitoring the forecast as the scheduled time for cultural practices approaches is always a good idea. If Mother Nature is not going to cooperate, you may need to adjust which practices are performed and/or when they happen. This could include moving from core aeration to solid-tine aeration, using a smaller tine than originally planned, forgoing aggressive vertical mowing, or in extreme situations, postponing the planned practices altogether. Ideally, there is a backup date scheduled if weather conditions are unsuitable.
If you are questioning whether the playing surfaces can withstand the planned practices, test them out on the nursery or practice green a week or two ahead of time to get an idea of whether adjustments need to be made. This will provide an opportunity to observe how the turf responds, and it gives you time to order different tines if necessary.
Provided a sound cultural management program has been in place, making an adjustment to be less aggressive one time will not lead to issues. This flexibility is a benefit of performing the necessary cultural practices every year. One thing to note is that being less aggressive this year does not mean that should be a permanent change to the program. Ideally, organic matter testing is done every year to monitor trends and observe how any changes to the maintenance program impact organic matter levels. For more information on planning upcoming cultural practices, reach out to your regional USGA agronomist.
Central Region Agronomists:
Zach Nicoludis, regional director, Central Region – znicoludis@usga.org
Tom Gould, agronomist – tgould@usga.org
Information on the USGA’s Course Consulting Service
Contact the Green Section Staff