Golf Course Update 4/1/15

 

 

As most of you know this has been an abnormal past few weeks of weather here at the course. Cool early spring temperatures along with recent snow showers have threatened to delay the April 10th opening day. Unfortunately there is still significant amounts of snow throughout the course:

 

 Chipping Green

 

 #9 Green

 

 #2

 

 #11

 

 #11 Green

 

 #9

 

 Driving Range

 On a more positive note I am pleased to report that as of today there seems to be a minimal amount of ice damage. In the previous post I shared my concern and explained the process of monitoring turf plugs for injury. As you can see, 5 out of the 6 samples are thriving but the turf plug all the way on the right that is severely damaged is from a section of #18 Green:

 

 

Here are some pics of the green:

 



This small area will be repaired when the weather begins to cooperate. Currently we are in the process of clearing any remaining ice from a few greens. We chose to do this by using the most economical and least invasive method, spreading black sunflower seeds on top of the ice:

 

 The dark color of the seeds absorb the sunlight and helps the melting process along. They can then be simply blown off. In the pic below you can see how well the seeds facilitate melting: