On Thursday and Friday we shovelled off 2 or 3 patches on each green. We also took in 2 plugs from the 12th green and brought them into the greenhouse. More on that in a bit. I'll briefly outline what we found and then give an early assessment. We didn't find any areas of sheet ice covering extensive areas of any greens. In most spots we were able to shovel and scrape off solid snow cover down to the turf. There was no tell tale odor that signifies dead or dying turf. However there are small spots of ice that formed wherever an animal, person or skier crossed a green. This ice formed early in the winter. Long enough to cause problems.
The 2 plugs we took in consisted of one that was clear of ice and one that had an small ice block on it. The plug with no ice looked good this morning (Saturday). The ice covered plug began smelling Friday morning. This morning the smell was gone but there is dead turf. There is some live turf as well which is creeping bentgrass (can survive under ice for over 100 days). The dead turf is the annual bluegrass (Poa annua). So generally I am cautiously optimistic that we will come out in fair condition considering the winter we had. Some problems yes but we will deal with them as soon as conditions warrant. The next issue is how the spring progresses. We aren't out of the woods yet. Turf has been lost during the critical period between winter and consistently warmer temperatures. As the days progress we will make further decisions on when to begin removing snow. My preference is to keep the snow on as long as the greens are dormant (frozen) at the surface. More for protecting the vulnerable annual bluegrass than anything else.
It is still only mid March. Winter can rear its head again. Hopefully not though as it will help us get an early start on both the LREP and the 2012 golf season. Its late so this blog has not been proofed. Please excuse any errors. More updates later in the month.
Wade
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