18th Tees Getting Ready for Sod

We have reconstructed the tees on 18, the blue is about 5 yards longer, the white and ladies tees remain the same and the senior tee moves up about 25 yards.  Once sod is available, we will have the 18th hole finished.

Continued Tree Work on 3rd and 4th Holes

In order to get better sunlight on the 3rd green and make the view even more dramatic, more trees were removed on the 4th hole this winter.  More trees will be removed in the woods behind the 4th green in the future to make the vista even more dramatic.

Shade Patterns

The photos above show how shade effects turf in the winter as much as the summer.  The fairways are the 1st,8th,12th and 15th.  These fairways struggled last year with the heat and moisture and it is evident why.  Here the course is almost snow free except for these areas, which shows we have weaker turf in these areas due to the lack of sunlight and this is why these areas may struggle when it is hot in the summer.  Aggressive tree removals are needed in these areas.

Put Away the Shovels and Grab the Squeegees

Okay, we cleaned the snow off the greens on Sunday.  On Monday and today the ice melted down and now it is critical to get any standing water off the greens before Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  The good news is it is a one day cold snap and hopefully all of our hard work has paid off.
The greens look in good condition with no snow mold or ice damage so far.

Melt That Snow and Ice!!!

What a day, almost 60 degrees.  Here the crew is manually removing ice from the 10th green and opening up channels for the water to run off before the short term freeze comes in on Thursday.  In spots there is little to no ice and in others we have 3-4", mainly where the water drains off the green.  While this is labor intensive, it allows us to get the poa much needed oxygen.

Snow Removed From Greens

The past 2 days, we started removing snow from the greens.  Mainly the low parts of the greens were cleaned so water can run easily off the greens with the warm weather we will see today and tomorrow.  On some greens there was between a 1/2" to 1" of ice and it has been about 30 days of ice cover, which for poa is pushing the envelope.  We will spend the day tomorrow keeping the green fronts clear and we will also squeegee any water that cannot get off the greens before the temperatures drop drastically on Wednesday night.