'It's been a difficult balance': Dry conditions causing issues for golf courses

The lack of rain in P.E.I. is having an impact on some golf courses in the province.

"It's been a difficult balance for sure with regards to moisture," said Paul MacCormack, general manager and superintendent at Fox Meadow Golf Course in Stratford.

"It is fairly typical through the summer months that we do dry out through July and August, and it's something we work with and monitor quite closely, but this summer it has been drier than normal."

'Keeping the grass alive'

Golf is, of course, a game played on a surface. MacCormacksaid his job is to manage that surface, and playability is his main focus.

"When you hit a drought or you hit a prolonged period of no rain, just keeping the grass alive is really the main goal, so we use things like moisture meters, and we're always out scouting to make sure that our irrigation, the system itself it working correctly."

MacCormacksaid he will oftensacrifice the way things look at the course, reducinginputs, including water and only doing as much as absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of surfaces.

"Over-watering turf just causes it to be lazy for lack of a better word and playability suffers," he said. "We like to keep it as firm and lean as possible and through inputs like water, fertility, that's how we achieve what we set out to do."

Rain wanted

At this point, MacCormack said what's needed is a slow, gentle rain.

"We need rain for playability," he said. "We put a lot of traffic through golf courses on P.E.I. in the run of a summer, and really making sure you have enough moisture and enough inputs to recover from that traffic, that's really what we aim for this time of year."

But, not everyone is hoping for rain.

but not too much rain

Mark McLane, executive director at Golf PEI, saidIsland courses areenjoying another banner season with all the sun and no rain.

"When it's pouring rain, our golf courses are closed so to speak," he said.

"It's been a great year, so golfers, especially we call them short haul golfers, will look at the weather forecast and again, call us on a Wednesday or Thursday looking to come for the weekend for two nights and three rounds. Bookings are very strong."

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