Late March Course Update

This update has been a long time coming. Since the last blog posting in mid January the golf course has gone through a roller coaster of weather events. Aside from the usual snow and cold weather the months following were punctuated with warm spells, more days of rain than past winters and some fairly heavy snowfalls. We stayed away from the surface of the greens due to the uncertainty of the weather and the worry that any disturbance might lead to unnecessary turf damage (recall the footprints and damaged section on 2 green last season). We did pull turf samples and bring them into the green house in early March and they responded well. The one green I was very concerned about was the putting green. Just by the nature of its location ice formed and water settled in a few low areas. How do we know? It was cleared off and fully exposed before the heavy snowfall we saw last weekend. It was in far better condition than last year but there is some ice damage on the south edge of the green.

We had cleared the snow off all the greens except 9 and 12 by last Wednesday. We decided to leave them because temperatures were forecasted to drop for a few days. The unexpected 20cm of snow happened to provide a pretty good insulating cover for the exposed greens. We have cleared 9 and 12 and the pictures below show the conditions as of Wednesday afternoon. As you can see we have a long way to go. Keep in mind it is still March and we have entered a very unpredictable time of year.

The Putting Green after the snowfall last weekend

12 Green after a few hours of exposure



9 Green late Wednesday

As you can see we aren't in any position to give the membership a totally accurate update. Needless to say we have our fingers crossed and remain positive. The bentgrass on the greens and tees is of little worry for us. It is and will be fine. Of course we are now a Poa/bentgrass golf course so our concern at present lies entirely with the multiple varieties of Poa annua that exist on our greens. The question remains as to how each biotype will react to the past winter and the uneven weather conditions during March and April. When all the greens are clear and the turf begins to respond to warmer weather we will update the membership further.