On The Course March 14th

Above is a video of the course from March 13th. Over the next couple of days the course will dramatically change and we will be making some more videos to share. We are excited to get the season started and with the current weather it should make for a record opening.

We currently still have some frost in the soil but with the nightime temperatures in the low 50's and the daytime highs hitting records in the 70's we expect the frost to be short lived. Once the frost comes out of the ground and the Excelsior mats that have been protecting the greens all winter are dry we will start to remove them. Currently they are still a little wet on the turf surface. They should be dry enough to start to roll up Thursday. It will take us a couple days to get the mats off of the greens and a couple days to let the greens dry out enough before we would be able to get foot traffic on them.

The greens on the Executive course has thawed out and is drying out. We have the Executive Course Closed for the time being but we expect to open it up on Thursday of this week. If you see flagsticks out on the Executive Course we have it open. JD and I have been touring the course and we should be able to open the Driving Range Tee sometime on Friday. We will be utilizing the artificial mats for the first few weeks of the season and will have the turf grass portion of the tee covered to aid with growth.

We are having a Grounds Committee meeting Tuesday, March 20th and will be discussing the 2012 golf season.

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.

On The Course March 6th

Edge of Excelsior Cover on #12 Green

We have been eagerly awaiting a good snow melt after the big snow event from last week and it has started. Over half of the measured snow has compressed and melted and we are very please with what we have seen on the course to this point. We have some ice in some fairway spots but over all I believe the course is in pretty good shape. We have looked at a couple greens and there does not appear to be any ice on them and our Toro Turfguard sensors still show soil temperatures below 32 degrees. We will be monitoring these daily to see what the temperatures are reading and will also be taking daily checks of the golf course. The weather forecast looks to be really good for the weekend with a chance of some rain. That rain if warm enough could pull the rest of the frost out of the ground and helps us get a jump start on spring.

Cover Releases from the Turf Canopy.

The covers we looked at yesterday on 10 and 12 look really good. They are not frozen to the ground or encased in ice. We have lost a lot of the snow pack over night and will look at some greens later this afternoon. We do not want to interrupt the snow melt by tracking up areas around the greens. Footprints and shovel marks can re-freeze overnight and cause an ice dam when the snow starts to melt again. We will be watching some run off areas and if needed be clearing certain areas to help with the snow melt. With temperatures predicted to be in the middle 50's for the weekend I would imagine most of the snow will be gone by Monday of next week. We will be making a more frequent return to blogging about the course and what we are seeing as the snow melts.

Drainage Basins are Open and the Water is Flowing.