I am and I’m eagerly reading Briggs & Stratton’s Yard Doctor, Trey Rogers’ updates from Beijing. From Trey’s description, and knowing how poorly my grass does in August, I’m a little worried about the condition of the grass he’s worked so hard to grow for the Olympic Games.

Day 1: August 9, 2008

Greetings from China, home of the 2008 Summer Olympics. It’s close to midnight now, as our plane only arrived at 10 pm local time. (There is a 12 hour time difference from EDT, 12 hour earlier.) The trip took a total of 23 hours and three plane changes, not something I would recommend, but the hotel is nice.

Since this is actually my fifth trip to Beijing, the beauty of the airport and highways did not wow me as it has before, but I was impressed with the incredible heat and humidity (it was 90 degrees when the plane landed). The fog/smog everyone has heard so much about was incredibly solid and visible. This is not great weather for either athletes or grass. The prolonged heat and humidity will really do damage to cool season grasses. Our turf here is Kentucky bluegrass, and while it has been well tended with proper fertilizer and plant protectants, even these can only go so far in keeping a plant healthy. Heat and humidity are brutal for all. It will be interesting to see how the lawns and parks look after this summer.

Tomorrow we get up early and go to the Bird’s Nest stadium, home of the opening ceremonies and our modular turf project. I’ve been told that the “move in” of the turf modules will take place over three days, August 10 through 12. I am not sure when the first field events are set for this turf, but I will let you know very soon. I do know that the Gold Medal Soccer game is set for August 24.

I’ll let you know how the grass looks tomorrow.

Trey Rogers, the Briggs & Stratton Yard Doctor

Read more of Trey's blog posts from China.