Spring Update!

I've been meaning to update this page for a while but I haven't really had much to share until today. Winter has been dragging on and we have been waiting to get outside to survey the course for any damage that may have occurred.  With the recent improvement in the weather, we have started removing the winter covers from our greens.  THE GOOD NEWS - so far everything looks very good:

#12

#11 green from 12 tee

Looking back down #5

As you can see, there is still quite a bit of snow left on the course and the grass we can see is dormant.  We haven't seen all of the greens yet but are cautiously optimistic that everything has wintered well. Of course we never really know until everything starts to green up and grow.  Once all of the covers are removed, we will begin cleaning up from the course all of the debris that accumulates over the winter.  Hopefully all of the snow is gone very soon and the temperatures warm up to more seasonal values.

I have good records of various milestones throughout the season from the 14 years I have been here and I know that on average, it is roughly 4 weeks from the time we remove the covers to the opening of the course for play.  The most important aspect of opening the course is that the grass be growing so that it capable of recovering from the wear and tear of golf.  This means we need to have mowed everything at least once before we open.  The last thing anyone wants is to beat up the course in the early spring and jeopardize conditions later on.

The long range weather forecast does not look great at this point:

Hopefully things improve quickly but in the meantime, we will continue with our spring preparations as conditions allow.  We are fully ready and committed to getting the course open as soon as possible and will keep you updated weekly through this blog as we go forward.  See you soon!