One of the greatest challenges maintaining a golf property in the transition zone is to have a sustainable product season long. A strong Defense is an important cog for a sports team, and it's an equally important part of turfgrass management. This time of year is the peak weakness for cool season grasses. Root systems have declined, months of mowing and traffic have occured, long and hot days are the norm, and rainfall is an all or nothing proposition. Within 48 hours turf can be lost to heat/drought stress and/or to disease from high heat and humid conditions. This time of year calls for the starting varsity defense. Defense comes in multiple forms. Most often it involves a combination of what we don't do with added measures to the to-do list. We remove unnecessary stresses by limiting processes such as grooming the turf, topdressing with a mechanical drag, and letting surfaces get to or past the wilt point. We add processes such as tigh...