An already hot and dry Alabama summer is becoming progressively worse by the day.

Despite showers late in the week, the state remains in the grip of a drought.

Like farmers, local golf courses have been having a hard time keeping sufficient water on the ground where it is needed most.

For the golf course superintendents, the main target has been the greens.

At Valley Grande Golf Course, Wendall Michaels said they have been taking a few different approaches to keeping the course in tip-top shape.

“Basically we have been aerating the greens and using a chemical that helps water penetrate better,” he said. “The most important thing is to water it, water it, water it. Every time we turn around we water it.”

The same is true for the Crag Field Golf course, manager Dick Bradley said.

“We try to get as much water out there as we can,” he said. “We need a rain bad. But until we get it, we just have to keep watering the course.”

Like Valley Grande, Bradley said Craig also uses a chemical to hold moisture and a few landscaping tricks.

“We aerated last week and that seemed to do some good,” he said. “Of course on the fairways you can never get enough water when it’s like this.”

An assessment released Thursday by federal monitoring agencies shows that dry conditions are spreading north through the state. Southern Alabama is locked in an extreme drought, and only north central Alabama and the Tennessee Valley region have sufficient rainfall so far this year.

Almost 77 percent of the state is abnormally dry, and about 55 percent of Alabama is experiencing drought conditions.

Statistics show conditions have worsened since last week, and the situation could be worse next week since most of the state has been dry this week.

Fortunately, the dry conditions do not prevent players from hitting the course, they simply change the way they approach the game.

However, the maintenance required to pull a golf course through drought conditions can place a tremendous expense on the course’s ownership because of increased utilities and labor costs.