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Spring Start Up - posted April 28 A quick summary and explanation of what you'll see Most greens have sustained some degree of ice damage from this past winter. Initially, the winter season was setting up nicely with all preventative snow mould treatments being successfully applied and the occurrence of cool, dry days to signal the turf to stop growing and start sleeping. The snow early in December would have been ideal had it now been for the rain and mild temperatures that soon followed. That weather event in December resulted in an incomplete melt of the snow and the creation of a slush layer on all the green surfaces. Standing water in low spots eventually froze into ice and that is where most of the damage has occurred. We began exposing greens in early March to get a feel for the extent of the ice damage. The slow spring (nights with lows of -13c and daytime highs of +2c) made removing the snow cover a risky venture. When turf is waking up in the spring it does not have the carbohydrate reserves to withstand low temperatures like it does when it has time to prepare for the onset of winter in the fall. Some of the damage (e.g. the upper putting green and #4 green) may be a direct result of this spring's low temperatures (strangely enough called "low temperature kill"). The first surface exposed was #18 green. After a short time of trying to grow plugs of turf indoors it became clear that the damage from the ice on #18 green was severe and extensive enough to warrant re-sodding the affected area. A portion of that green was re-sodded at the beginning of April. At this time (late April), we hope to deal with most of the other damage by over-seeding or plugging. Weak areas will be kept under insulating tarps for protection. Please avoid walking on these areas to help expedite their recovery. We still have plenty of cleaning up to do including sweeping needles, starting irrigation, edging bunkers and flashing sand. To ease your transition into the golf season you could agree to play any bunker that does not have a rake as G.U.R. Once a bunker is prepared for the season will will add rakes and it can be treated as usual. For at least a week we will be playing a version of 9 holes. Some holes may be taken out of play during next week (April 28 - May 3) to allow for maintenance. The remaining holes will open (hopefully by May 3) once the snow has disappeared and water has soaked in and we've had a chance to clean up this winters' detritus. If you have questions or want to see pictures from the past winter or spring (especially the picture of the poplar tree that nailed the maintenance building and caved in the roof) just ask me or click here to view.
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