Friday, March 27, 2009

A Quick Update

Things are slowly (and I do mean slowly) starting to green up. There is a still a lot of brown turf out there but I can see a tinge of green coming in new growth. There are a few exceptions which I am monitoring closely - most notably the back right tier of #12 green. I am now almost postive that it is dead. As I have mentioned before, this is an odd situation since it is the highest point of the green. Normally, winter injury strikes the lowest part of a green where ice (and then water) accumulates. In this case, I think the high area was exposed to one (or more) of the extreme changes in temperature. The lower area of the green was covered in snow which would insulate the turf, and the higher, exposed area was killed. If it is as bad as I think, #12 will be a temporary green to start the season. We will begin the repair and recovery process as soon as the weather allows.

We are still a ways away from opening the course. As I mentioned, the grass really hasn't started to grow yet and opening now would risk course conditions later in the season. Over the years our average opening has been about the third week of April. The weather dictates opening day more than anything else. We need a stretch of warm days so the grass will start to grow.

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