BATON ROUGE - A unique way to end the fall women's golf season for the No. 1-ranked LSU women's golf team begins on Friday in the inaugural Pac-10/SEC Challenge at the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, Calif.

Almost two years in the planning, the event pitting arguably the top two conferences, top to bottom, in the country, includes seven of the top 10 teams in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin ratings. All 12 Southeastern Conference teams will take part in the event along with nine of the 10 Pac-10 teams (minus Arizona State) for this battle of conference superior.

Finally…we are coming to the end of one of the worse weather years on record; a long cold winter with a grueling hot summer. Superintendents in the southeast say it was the longest hot weather period in memory.

Bent grass & The Heat…The best soil temperature for bent grass root development ranges from 50 to 65 degrees. New root growth ceases at a soil temperature of 80 degrees and the natural aging process of the existing root systems begins. Soil temps above 86 degrees will cause root growth to stop and roots lose their ability to function. Above mid-90 degrees, root hairs die, roots begin to turn brown and fail to function properly. When air temperatures exceed 90 degrees, soil temps in the upper half inch will exceed 100 degrees. In mid July, air temps were 94 degrees at 1:00 pm and the soil temps were 107 degrees in the top half inch mark. The day time temps. were in the mid 90s and the nighttime temps. were in the low 80s and this continued for weeks. Add water to this relentless weather pattern, which does replace oxygen in the soil needed for survival however; excessive water holds heat. Typically, we combat this with small tine aerification, topdressing lightly and management of water. But there’s no controlling Mother Nature and the numerous pop up afternoon thundershowers we experienced, coupled with the lack of air movement which many of our greens are subjected to. The bright side…YES there is a bright side… this week marks the first day of autumn, the night time temperatures are getting lower and there is a noticeable positive reaction of the bent grass.