On The Course March 12th

Water flowing off of the front of #18 Green

 The big thaw has started and with the forecasted temperatures it won't be long before all of the snow is off the course and the frost starts to come out of the ground. I took a quick drive around the course this morning and I would say 95% of the snow has melted off. The bunkers are still holding some snow but the course has drained very well since yesterday. The pictures in this blog post were taken yesterday afternoon by Troy as he toured the course cleaning out drainage basins. There was a lot of surface water sitting in areas but as we drove around this morning most if not all has drained off. There are still some puddles in a few areas but as the frost comes out of the ground it should soak in. The soil temperatures on our greens has finally gotten above 30 degrees for the first time since November.

Looking across the low holes from 2 green towards 10 green.

Range Tee will be clear of snow before Monday.

 I checked several suspect areas on a few of the greens that we typically would have drainage issues and standing water. All of the areas I have checked so far look really good and nothing "smells" funny. Typically during the spring thaw we can "smell" turf that hasn't wintered very well. We will continue to look at the forecast and will be determining when is the most appropriate time to pull the covers off of the greens. With temperatures later in the week that could hit 70 degrees we could be getting a really good look at the greens later this week or for sure by the begining of next week. We are planning on bringing most of our seasonal staff back starting March 19th to begin uncovering greens. All of the best laid plans can be changed by mother nature in a heartbeat. Snow is not out of our minds but it will be far in the back if the temperatures do hit above 70 degrees.

Drainage system is accepting the snow melt really well.