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| ENOUGH SAID! |
I
thought it would be helpful to give you a update on the impact this winter’s
weather has had on the golf course and our maintenance plan. It goes without saying that we’ve experienced
near record snowfall and low temperatures that have extended the winter season.
FAIRWAY AERIFICATION AND SEEDING
Our ability to core aerify and seed the fairways and rough has been halted to this point. The past three weeks have either been too wet or snow covered to perform this vital cultural practice. Why is this an issue? WEEDS! My program is designed around having our spring seeding sowed and germinated prior to a pre-emergent weed application. Unfortunately, crabgrass seed is already in the soil lying in wait for its opportunity to germinate. Temperatures can rise quickly and crabgrass will have the advantage. The plan for this spring is to solid tine aerify/seed selected fairway and rough areas. If we are unable to aerify/seed this week, we will only solid tine and hold seeding until fall. The result will be a half season delay for rough establishment following construction. As weather dictates,
Pre-emergent herbicides will be applied to minimize weeds course wide.
BUNKERS
Part
of my winter program is to supplement and touch up bunkers that have been
contaminated over the season. This
consists of exposing the drainage, inspecting the piping and adding fresh
sand. I had ten bunkers on my list and
we’ve only been able to address three due to weather. The process is time consuming and disruptive
to play, so we will have to look for opportunities when the spare nines are closed
on Mondays to continue.
PAR 3 TEE SODDING
For
the past two years we have sodded portions of the Par 3 teeing areas that have been
thinned by play. We used our entire in-house
turfgrass nursery for these repairs, but more is needed. Sod availability and harvest has also been
greatly affected by winter weather.
COLLAR MANAGEMENT
Collar management is a challenge in the Transition zone and we’ve had our fair share
of setbacks. I changed our management protocol that consists of reducing the width and
addressing thatch build up. Phase 1 (Width Reduction) of the program has been completed . Phase 2 (Small Tine Core Aerification/Topdressing) began and was halted by snow cover. Six holes have been completed.
GOOSE CONTROL
With snow
cover off and on since the end of December, geese have had full run of the
property. Assembling in areas not accessible
due to snow cover made it difficult to run the dogs as a deterrent. The result
is excrement on the snow, that when melt occurs, is quite a mess. Clean up is difficult because of wet
conditions.
Although the weather has caused disruption, we have regrouped and completed other projects on my hit list. Stay tuned for those updates!
I hope
this will give you some idea of how things are going and help answer any
questions.
