COURSE UPDATE APRIL 14th

My day started off with a look out the window and no snow! By the time I had dressed and checked out the radar loop on the Environment Canada website it was snowing. On my way to work I almost hit a pedestrian who decided to cross the street without looking or thinking about an ice covered 109th street. No harm done.

I had planned to go out today, take some pictures of the golf course and then post them for all to see. It would be a bad joke to do it now. Aside from a lack of pictures I can report that conditions look very promising at present. We have 3 greens left to clear (the present snowfall not included) and the greens that are clear look good. The greens that have more annual bluegrass (Poa annua) than creeping bentgrass look blotchy and off color but that is normal. There are several different bio types of Poa across the surface of the greens and each type has its own distinctive color and look as they come out of dormancy in the spring. Eric brought in samples (plugs) to the greenhouse and after 24 hours or so they are growing quite well. The tee surfaces also look good and any fairway turf I can see looks ok as well. Unfortunately I can't see much. They are either covered in snow or underwater. If you have a home lawn you probably have a good dose of snow mold and maybe some mouse damage. At the golf course the mice had a field day. No pun intended. Many surrounds are chewed up and I think we will see some activity on some tees and greens as well.

 Wherever we did not apply a fungicide there are some pretty dramatic examples of snow mold. We sprayed all the usual areas of the course as well as 1 or 2 passes of the rough around the greens. Next fall, weather, time and cost permitting I would like to expand the rough treatment to further protect the course for a better spring result. Conditions as they are this spring always validate our efforts to protect the turf from disease pressure. We aren't quite out of the woods yet though. We will be applying a spring fungicide as soon as we can get on the greens and hoping for seasonable weather and not a dramatic drop in temperatures. The turf (especially Poa) is very susceptible to a low tempertature setback during March and April.

We are hoping to have the parking lot (most of it anyway) cleaned up before the Easter weekend and the practice facilties open by then as well. The putting greens are almost a given but with today's weather the driving range has become a long shot. Maybe next week will be warm and sunny. We need good weather down in maintenance as well so that our city water line thaws out sooner than later. Scroll to the bottom for another picture. One other note. The ipod app will not display pictures so visit: http://www.wpeckham.blogspot.com/  or Google: "Royal Mayfair Turf Notes" to view any pictures. Thanks.

Until next time.
Wade