If keeping your front lawn alive during the crazy days of a Florida summer often seems like an impossible task, cheer up. Even with a fleet of tractors, a 22-member work crew and a ton of fertilizer at his disposal, Jason Kubel can feel your pain.
Kube is the greens superintendent at TPC of Tampa Bay, and summer makes him sweat.
The months of July, August and September are to Florida golf course superintendents what the holiday season is to the post office. It's a time when there's way too much that can go wrong — and often does.
"Maintenance wise, we struggle through the summer months," Kube said.
Rain is the greatest burden. Last month more than 15 inches fell, with more than half of it coming during one four-day stretch. But the summer can just as easily mean courses are being baked by a drought. Both extremes open the door for a fight with fungus, disease, and a menace known as nematodes, microscopic organisms that thrive in Florida's sandy soil.
It's a hazard of the business for every course in Florida. Fox Hollow and the Eagles currently are redoing greens. Recently, World Woods, Old Memorial and USF had to re-sod.
But it is rain that slowly beats maintenance crews down.
"You maintain your golf course on a daily basis," Kube said. "After every storm, you put your golf course back together. And as soon as we put it back together, it seems that at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, another thunderstorm comes along and all the work you did today is gone.
"The next day, here comes my staff and it's "hey, guys, we've got to fix the bunkers again.' When you do that every day in 90-plus degree heat and 100 percent humidity, it wears on you. You do that nonstop for three months straight, it whips you. In the winter, it's real gratifying. If you like to be outside, it's a great place to work. But the morale and turnover of staff during the summer is sometimes unbelievable. It's frustrating."
Source: The Tampa Tribune (Florida)