Update

The golf course WILL open this Friday at 12:00 as planned.  Tee times will be allowed after 11:00 on Saturday morning due to frost.  After this the course will remain open, expect frost delays in the morning.  Carts will NOT be allowed this weekend due to the soft and wet conditions.

Aerification did not happen today due to the snow.  We hope to aerify greens next week, depending on the weather.

Gas savings this winter

You would think that with the colder temps our heating bill for the maintenance shop would be an increase over last year.  Over the last 2 months, we have saved $300 in our heating bills over last year.  This is directly related the the work we did this winter installing new ceilings throughout the building and adding adequate insulation.

Opening on March 29

We will be opening the golf course for the year on Friday, March 29.  With highs in the 40's the greens will be able to remain unfrozen and start accepting traffic.  The greens aerification that was scheduled for this upcoming Monday will be performed on Wednesday, March 27 due to the freezing temps we are seeing now.  By Wednesday the greens should be thawed out again and allow us to aerify without damaging the green.  By Friday the pins will be in and the year will begin!

Course opening and upcoming aerification

Last year we opened the golf course to play on March 14th due to unseasonably warm weather.  This year will be back to normal with current temperatures at or slightly below average.  Next week we are still looking at highs in the 40's with lows in the 30's.  On Monday, March 25 we are scheduled to aerify the greens.  I would suspect that we will open sometime soon after aerifying the greens unless the forecast makes a turn for the better soon.

When we aerify greens 10 days from now, we will not be pulling cores from the greens as we sometimes do.  Below is a picture of what we typically have done on the greens:

Instead we will be using a solid tine, using the same process that we implemented last October.  Below is a picture of what we will be doing in 10 days:

We will be putting the sand on the green first, going over the green with the aerifier and then dragging the sand into the holes.  There are a few reason why we are doing this:

1. Our soil tests indicate we need more sand incorporated into our root zone.  When we pull cores and clean the green off, the holes fill up with debris making it hard to incorporate good sand into the hole.

2. When we pull plugs, the greens gets very spongy for some time, even with large amounts of rolling.

The main benefit of pulling a plug is to remove the undesirable stuff - thatch, organic matter.  There are other ways that we can keep thatch down - topdressing, moderate fertilizing, growth regulators; and our organic matter % should continue to improve based on the amount of sand we will be putting down.

Therefore we are going to solid tine the greens with large (3/4") tines, incorporate lots of sand into the holes, and keep the greens smoother and firmer through the process.  I have talked to our Soil Consultant on this and he agrees this is a good approach.  There are also a few other courses in the Toledo area that are going to the route of not pulling cores, one course in Mansfield has been doing this for years and the results are great.  We did this last fall and I thought it worked great.  We will continue to monitor our soil tests and make changes as necessary   As always we want to make sure we are doing what is best for the long term health of the greens.

Range tee divots

Below is a link that explains the proper way to use a range tee.  There are three different ways to take divots out of the range tee, with one technique being the preferred option.  Please take a look at the video and do your best to leave some range tee space for the next person.

Preferred Divot Pattern

This video came from Superintendent Dan Meersman at Philadelphia Cricket Club.

Below is a picture taken from our range tee this past year.  You can imagine the time it takes for the grass to fill in this area.

We don't have a massive range tee that some golf course can have.  We also have a large numbers of golfers that frequent the range.  This puts a lot of stress on the tee for a quick recovery before the next wave of divots.  Therefore, I have two requests 1. Use a divot pattern as outlined in the video and 2. Police your fellow members.  If you notice someone making a quarry in the range tee, politely explain the Superintendent prefers a different divot pattern.  I'll do my best to get the grass to fill in and I'm sure you will as well.

Preparing for spring

Yesterday, before all this snow, we started raking the golf course and picking up all the sticks.  We finished 10,11,12,13 and 5.  We try to get the entire course cleaned up before we have to mow the rough, this year we should have no problem getting this accomplished.  Typically this spring clean-up takes a few weeks.  After all the raking is done, we will turn our attention to getting the bunkers back in shape for the year.

On Monday we removed the large dead Ash tree that was between 18 ladies tee and the river.  This will most likely be the last of the tree removals for this winter.