When Mother Nature Controls the Growing Season

When Mother Nature Controls the Growing Season

Understanding how winter weather affects bermudagrass and golf course conditions in Southwest Florida

After more than three decades managing the golf course at Olde Florida Golf Club, one thing I've learned is that Mother Nature always has the final say.

I'm entering my 34th season as golf course superintendent at Olde Florida, and while I've experienced just about every weather condition imaginable, I'm still reminded how much our success depends on sunlight, temperature, and rainfall.

This fall has been a good example.

Southwest Florida's rainy season generally ends around October 15. By November, we typically enjoy lower humidity, less rainfall, and the beginning of our beautiful winter weather. However, the transition this year has been anything but typical. Over the last few days, an area of subtropical moisture has been sitting over Southwest Florida, bringing warm, humid conditions, considerable cloud cover, and significant rainfall.

While the recent rain has created some inconvenience for golfers, it has also been beneficial. Following several relatively dry weeks, the rainfall has replenished soil moisture and provided favorable conditions for additional growth and recovery in a few areas that needed it. Overall, the golf course is in excellent condition as we enter the winter season.

I've also noticed over the years how differently bermudagrass responds to natural rainfall compared to irrigation water. Our irrigation water contains elevated levels of bicarbonates and has a relatively high pH, largely due to the limestone geology found throughout Southwest Florida. Rainwater generally contains fewer dissolved salts and bicarbonates and can help flush accumulated salts from the soil. It's one reason I often refer to rainfall as "liquid gold" for our turfgrass.

Why Winter Rainfall Is Different

During the summer, bermudagrass thrives in our warm temperatures, long days, and abundant sunlight. It grows aggressively and recovers quickly from mowing, golf carts, and other everyday stresses.

Winter is a different story.

As temperatures cool and daylight hours shorten, growth naturally slows. Extended periods of cloudy weather further reduce the sunlight available for photosynthesis, the process plants use to produce energy.

With less sunlight, the grass produces less energy to support healthy growth and recovery.

During the summer, a thin area in a fairway or a worn location near a green may recover relatively quickly. During the winter, that same area may show very little recovery for weeks or even months.

Whether the wear comes from maintenance equipment, golf carts, foot traffic, or normal play, the grass needs favorable growing conditions to recover.

Even with the best management practices, there are limits to what we can accomplish when Mother Nature isn't providing the conditions bermudagrass needs to grow.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Water is essential for healthy turfgrass, but excessive rainfall creates another set of challenges.

Healthy roots need both moisture and oxygen. When soils remain saturated for extended periods, oxygen becomes limited, potentially reducing root growth and overall plant health.

Prolonged wet weather can also increase disease pressure, particularly when combined with mild temperatures and high humidity.

Operating mowing equipment or allowing golf carts on saturated turf can cause rutting, soil compaction, and unnecessary wear. These concerns become especially important during winter when the grass has a limited ability to recover.

What Does El Niño Have to Do With It?

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a strong to very strong El Niño is likely to continue through the winter.

NOAA's winter 2026–2027 precipitation outlook favors above-normal rainfall across Southwest Florida. The forecast is influenced by a strong El Niño weather pattern. Source: NOAA Climate Prediction Center, October 15, 2026.

El Niño is a climate pattern associated with unusually warm ocean temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. Although that may seem far removed from Southwest Florida, it can influence weather patterns across the United States.

During an El Niño winter, the jet stream often shifts farther south, increasing the likelihood of storms and rainfall across Florida.

NOAA's winter outlook favors above-normal rainfall across Southwest Florida, with temperatures expected to average near normal.

That doesn't mean every day will be rainy or that we won't enjoy plenty of beautiful golfing weather. It simply means the odds favor a wetter winter than normal.

Historical winter rainfall in Southern Florida shows the influence of El Niño. Winters are generally wetter during El Niño and considerably drier during La Niña. The red lines indicate median rainfall, while the boxes and vertical lines illustrate the range of historical rainfall totals. Source: NOAA/National Weather Service.   

Managing What We Can Control

One of the things I've always enjoyed about golf course management is that no two days are exactly alike.

We constantly evaluate conditions and adjust irrigation, fertility, mowing, rolling, and other maintenance practices accordingly.

During periods of reduced sunlight and slower growth, we may reduce mowing frequency or rely more on rolling to maintain putting quality while limiting unnecessary stress on the greens.

Irrigation also requires constant attention. At Olde Florida, we have approximately 1,200 sprinkler heads, and managing water efficiently involves much more than simply turning the system on or off. Individual areas can have very different moisture requirements, even within the same fairway.

Fertility is another important consideration. While nutrients support healthy turfgrass, additional fertilizer cannot replace the sunlight and temperatures needed for growth.

Our goal is to encourage healthy turfgrass without pushing it beyond what the growing conditions will support.

Looking Ahead

As I enter my 34th season at Olde Florida, I'm as enthusiastic about managing the golf course as I've ever been.

The golf course is in excellent condition, and our goal is to maintain those conditions throughout the winter. Experience has taught me that successful winter golf course management often involves protecting the turf we have rather than trying to encourage growth that Mother Nature isn't prepared to provide.

That may occasionally mean modifying maintenance practices, restricting golf carts, or making other adjustments that aren't always convenient. Those decisions are made with the long-term health of the golf course in mind.

After all these years, I still enjoy the challenge of working with Mother Nature. I just know better than to think I can control her.

From Rainy Season to Dry Season: Managing the Transition

Every year around October 15, Southwest Florida's rainy season unofficially comes to an end. While the date isn't exact, the change can be remarkably quick. I often describe it as someone simply turning off the faucet.

Throughout the summer, we receive the vast majority of our approximately 60 inches of annual rainfall. Those almost daily showers, combined with intense heat, high humidity, and long days, create exceptional growing conditions for bermudagrass. During these months, the grass grows at an incredible rate, often faster than we can mow it.

As we move into fall, temperatures cool, the days get shorter, and rainfall decreases dramatically. While bermudagrass continues to grow well, it simply doesn't grow at the same rate as during the summer. By winter, growth can slow to a crawl.

Interestingly, this change coincides with the beginning of our busiest golf season. Our seasonal members return to enjoy cooler temperatures, lower humidity, and beautiful, dry weather. Unfortunately, those same conditions make growing bermudagrass more challenging.

Beyond providing moisture, our almost daily summer rains help flush salts and other unwanted materials through the soil. I often refer to rainwater as "liquid gold" because of its tremendous benefits to our turfgrass. When the rains stop, we become increasingly dependent on irrigation water from our lakes, which has a higher pH and higher levels of bicarbonates than rainwater.

Another challenge is the variety of soils throughout our fairways. Unlike our greens and tees, which were built using a consistent mixture of sand and peat, our fairways contain several different soil types. Some areas have heavier soils that hold moisture longer, while others have sandier soils that drain much faster. Frequent summer rains help minimize these differences, but maintaining consistent moisture becomes more challenging once we return to irrigation.

What many members may not realize is how much attention goes into managing our irrigation system. We have more than 1,298 individually controlled sprinkler heads, and each night we adjust their running times based on the moisture needs of the turfgrass. One sprinkler might run for 60 minutes, while another may run for a minute or less. We also have 191 quick-coupling valves that allow our team to hand water specific areas needing additional attention.

Our team hand watering a dry area on the 18th fairway to provide additional moisture exactly where it's needed

Even with this level of control, balancing moisture takes time. Areas that hold more moisture often continue to have thick, lush bermudagrass, while areas that dry out quickly may appear thinner or less vigorous. Sometimes these differences are visible within the same fairway.

This year, we experienced an additional challenge. As the rainy season was winding down, we received nearly 15 inches of rain over six weeks. While rain is certainly beneficial, excessive amounts can wash valuable nutrients from the soil, particularly nitrogen, which is essential for healthy turfgrass growth.

Several of those heavy rains also washed grass clippings into narrow lines throughout the fairways. Because the golf course was so saturated, it took our team several days to clean them up.

The combination of nutrient loss, changing moisture conditions, and slower seasonal growth has made the differences in our fairways more noticeable this year.

As we do each year, our team has made several adjustments to restore consistency. We are applying small amounts of nitrogen fertilizer three times per week to encourage healthy growth, along with a fertilizer blend throughout the golf course to replenish essential nutrients.

In areas where the soil has become especially dry or has difficulty absorbing water, we are applying wetting agents that help water soak into the soil more evenly. We are also hand watering these areas to provide moisture exactly where it's needed without overwatering other portions of the fairways.

We've temporarily stopped using brushes on our fairway mowers, replaced the grooved front roller with a solid roller and slightly raised the mowing height. This leaves more leaf surface on the grass, allowing it to capture additional sunlight and produce the energy needed for healthy growth.

The good news is that we're already seeing improvement each day.

I expect the fairways to become increasingly consistent as we continue making adjustments. This seasonal transition is something we manage every year, and our team is focused on providing the healthy turfgrass and quality playing conditions our members have come to expect.

2026 Summer Update – Restoring Our Bunkers

During my regular walks around Olde Florida Golf Club this past winter, I began noticing something interesting. Several of our greenside bunkers appeared smaller than I remembered. It wasn’t a dramatic change, and the bunker edges were clearly defined and regularly maintained. However, something wasn’t quite right.

As I looked more closely, I realized that the surrounding TifTuf bermudagrass had gradually encroached into the bunkers. The change had occurred so slowly over the five years since our 2021 renovation that it was almost unnoticeable. In some locations, we had actually lost several feet of bunker area!

With that discovery, restoring the original bunker perimeters became one of our priorities for the summer. We also took the opportunity to inspect all 89 bunkers, redistribute the existing sand, and replenish it where necessary to restore a consistent depth of seven inches throughout the golf course.

Restoring the Original Bunker Perimeters

During our 2021 golf course renovation, we completely reconstructed all 89 bunkers using the Better Billy Bunker system. These bunkers encompass 3.27 acres and represented nearly 20% of the total renovation cost, making them one of the most significant investments in the project.

Working with Greg Muirhead, Senior Vice President/Senior Designer with Rees Jones, Inc., we reestablished the original bunker shapes and contours, restoring architectural features that had gradually been lost since the golf course opened in 1993.

As part of the renovation, we also completed a wall-to-wall regrassing of the golf course, selecting TifTuf bermudagrass for our tees, fairways, and roughs, including the areas surrounding the bunkers.

TifTuf has performed exceptionally well for us. Its vigorous growth and ability to recover are among the many characteristics that make it such an outstanding turfgrass. Over the past five years, however, that same vigorous growth allowed the turfgrass to gradually extend into the bunkers, slowly reducing their original dimensions.

What I found particularly interesting was that this occurred despite our regular bunker edging practices. The edges had remained well-defined, but over time, they had gradually moved inward. It was a subtle change that became much more apparent when compared to the dimensions established during the renovation.

Fortunately, an important feature of the Better Billy Bunker system made the restoration process considerably more accurate.

During construction, three inches of granite gravel were installed, with the upper portion secured using a polymer binder before the bunker sand was added. This layer provides exceptional drainage and resistance to washouts, but it also gave us something particularly valuable during this summer’s work: a permanent reference point beneath the sand.

Using a metal probe, our staff could locate the original edge of the polymer-secured gravel and accurately identify the bunker perimeter established in 2021. Rather than estimating where the bunker edges should be, we had a reliable reference to guide the restoration.

#7 Greenside Bunker 2026

#7 Greenside Bunker 2026

Throughout the summer, our agronomy team carefully removed the encroaching turfgrass and restored every greenside bunker to its original 2021 dimensions.

Although restoring a few feet of bunker perimeter might seem like a relatively minor improvement, it is important from an architectural standpoint. Bunkers are an integral part of the strategy and visual character of a golf hole. When their shapes and dimensions change, even gradually, they can influence both the appearance of the golf course and the way it plays.

#3 Greenside Bunker (Back) 2026

#3 Greenside Bunker (Back) 2021

Redistributing and Replenishing Bunker Sand

The second component of our summer project involved inspecting and restoring the sand depth in all 89 bunkers.

During the 2021 renovation, we established a consistent sand depth of seven inches throughout the bunkers. This was not an arbitrary number. It was an intentional decision based on our understanding of how moisture behaves within a lined bunker.

When water moves through a sand profile and encounters an underlying material with different drainage characteristics, moisture can accumulate near that interface, creating what is commonly referred to as a perched water table. This is not necessarily a negative characteristic, but it is an important consideration when determining the appropriate depth of bunker sand.

We recognized that the lower portion of the sand profile could remain moist following rainfall or irrigation. Rather than viewing this as a problem, we accounted for it in our original specifications.

By installing seven inches of bunker sand, we allowed for the possibility that approximately two inches at the bottom of the profile could retain moisture, leaving roughly five inches above that zone to provide more consistent playing conditions. The actual moisture distribution will vary, but the additional sand depth was intended to minimize the influence of that lower moisture zone on the playing surface.

Our objective was simple: We wanted golfers to experience essentially the same playing conditions regardless of which bunker they entered or where their ball came to rest within it.

Of course, bunker sand naturally moves over time. Routine raking, golfer activity, rainfall, and normal maintenance practices can cause sand to accumulate in some areas while leaving others with less than the desired depth.

Rather than simply adding new sand, our staff began by inspecting each bunker and redistributing the existing material to restore a uniform depth. This was an important first step because adding sand without correcting its distribution can actually compound inconsistencies.

Once the existing sand had been properly redistributed, we added new G-Angle bunker sand where necessary to restore the original seven-inch depth.

This approach also allowed us to make the most efficient use of the sand already in place, adding only the material needed to achieve our desired results.

Five years after the renovation, maintaining that original specification remains just as important. By redistributing and replenishing the sand, we are preserving the playing conditions we intentionally designed into our bunkers in 2021.

#11 Greenside 

Protecting Our Investment

When we selected the Better Billy Bunker system for our 2021 renovation, one of our primary objectives was to reduce the time and labor required to repair bunker washouts following significant rainfall.

Prior to the renovation, heavy rain events could result in substantial bunker damage, requiring considerable staff time to restore acceptable playing conditions. In some instances, as many as 16 employees would spend an entire day or more repairing bunkers following a significant rain event.

Five years later, the Better Billy Bunker system continues to exceed my expectations. The dramatic reduction in bunker washouts has been invaluable, and this summer’s restoration project highlighted another benefit of the system that I had not fully appreciated when it was originally installed.

The ability to locate the original bunker perimeters using the polymer-secured gravel gave us a level of accuracy that would have been difficult to achieve otherwise. What began as a project to address gradual turfgrass encroachment became an opportunity to restore architectural integrity while preserving the playing conditions established during our renovation.

I am particularly proud that our entire agronomy team completed this work in-house. Their attention to detail and commitment to quality allowed us to restore the original greenside bunker dimensions while reestablishing the sand depths throughout all 89 bunkers.

One of the lessons I have learned during my years at Olde Florida Golf Club is that completing a successful renovation is only part of the responsibility. Preserving those improvements requires the same attention to detail, commitment, and pride that went into the original project.

It is rewarding to see the investments we made in 2021 continuing to provide value, and equally rewarding to work with a team that understands the importance of protecting them.

For those interested in learning more about our original bunker renovation and the Better Billy Bunker construction process, I encourage you to revisit my May 2021 blog entry:

2021 Renovation Update #2 – Bunker Renovation

Summer Progress: Strengthening the Golf Course for the Season Ahead

Since my previous summer update, our team has continued to make significant progress on several projects designed to improve playing conditions and strengthen the long-term health of the golf course. Much of this work takes place while many of our members are away, so I wanted to provide another look at what has been accomplished, along with an update on rainfall and a developing weather pattern we are monitoring for this winter.

Drill-and-Fill

As in past years, we completed two separate Drill-and-Fill treatments on the greens this summer. The first was performed May 26–28, followed by a second treatment July 20–22.

The Drill-and-Fill process uses a one-inch drill bit to penetrate 10 inches into the greens profile on a 7-by-7-inch pattern. The channels are then filled with kiln-dried, coarse sand, creating pathways that improve water movement, increase oxygen within the root zone and modify the deeper portion of the soil profile.

During the first treatment, we incorporated more than 110 tons of kiln-dried, coarse sand into the greens. The second treatment added more than 114 tons, bringing the summer total to 224 tons, or approximately 448,000 pounds of sand placed into the greens profile.

This is a demanding, labor-intensive process, but it provides important long-term benefits. By addressing compaction and improving the movement of water and air deep within the profile, Drill-and-Fill helps create a healthier growing environment and improves the greens’ ability to withstand periods of heavy rainfall.

The soil profile shown below provides a clear look at the Drill-and-Fill process, with the 10-inch channel completely filled with sand and extending well below the existing thatch and organic layer into the deeper greens profile.

Shoreline Restoration

ShoreSOX has allowed us to reclaim areas of lake bank that had been lost to erosion and provide long-term stabilization. We previously used this approach successfully on the green complexes of holes 1 and 5 in 2021 and the hole 2 green complex in 2025.

This summer, we installed 828 linear feet of ShoreSOX on holes 10, 14 and 16 using 220 tons of a coarse sand known as 250 sand, along with 600 linear feet on hole 17 using 161 tons. In total, this summer’s projects included 1,428 linear feet of ShoreSOX and 381 tons of sand.

The system uses a durable, anchored mesh filled with sand to rebuild and support the shoreline, providing immediate stability while allowing turfgrass to grow through the material. As the turfgrass becomes established, its root system further strengthens the bank and provides added protection against erosion caused by rainfall, water movement and changing lake levels.

In addition to restoring lost ground, this work creates a more stable and maintainable transition between the golf course and the lakes. The finished product looks outstanding, with smooth, clean contours that blend naturally into the golf course.

The photos below show the shoreline on hole 17 before, during and after the ShoreSOX installation, illustrating how the system reclaimed the eroded lake bank and restored a smooth, stable transition to the golf course.

Rainfall Update

Through July, we have received 27.64 inches of rainfall in 2026. Most of that rain has occurred during the past three months, with 7.31 inches in May, 7.73 inches in June and 6.53 inches in July. Combined, those three months accounted for 21.57 inches, or nearly 80% of our year-to-date rainfall.

The consistent summer rainfall has allowed us to emerge from the extreme drought conditions experienced earlier in the year. Although rainfall has improved significantly, our year-to-date total remains below average.

Annual rainfall can vary considerably in Southwest Florida. We recorded 47.82 inches in 2025, 101.65 inches in 2024, 53.86 inches in 2023 and 83.99 inches in 2022, illustrating the significant variation we can experience from one year to the next.

A Potentially Very Strong El Niño Winter

According to NOAA’s July 9 outlook, El Niño is forecast to strengthen through the remainder of 2026, with a 97% chance that it will continue through early spring 2027. More notably, NOAA indicates an 81% chance that it will become a very strong El Niño during October through December, which could make it one of the strongest El Niño events recorded since 1950.

Although seasonal forecasts are not guarantees, El Niño typically shifts the winter storm track farther south, increasing the likelihood of cooler, cloudier, wetter and stormier conditions across Florida. Historically, El Niño winters have produced 40% to 50% more rainfall than normal across the Florida peninsula from December through March.

For the golf course, prolonged rainfall, cloud cover and cooler temperatures can reduce turfgrass growth and recovery while increasing soil moisture, disease pressure and traffic-related wear.

Many of our summer cultural practices are performed to prepare the golf course for these types of conditions. Aerification, Drill-and-Fill, topdressing and other soil-management practices help reduce thatch, improve drainage, increase air movement within the soil and create a healthier growing environment for the turfgrass.

We cannot predict exactly how the winter will unfold, but the possibility of a very strong El Niño reinforces the importance of the work being completed this summer as we prepare the golf course for the upcoming season.

The work completed this summer represents a significant investment in the long-term health, performance and appearance of the golf course. I am extremely pleased with our progress and appreciate the hard work and dedication of our agronomy team.