Monday, January 27, 2014

Winter greens maintenance

After the strong winds last night, certain spots on our greens had all the snow cover blown off, leaving the turf exposed to the elements.  With the extreme cold temps the next few days, it makes me a little nervous exposing the turf to those -30 degree wind chills.  Therefore, we did not take any chances, today we went around the course and covered all the bare areas on the greens with a few inches of snow.  This will help moderate the temps.  If the temp outside is -15 degrees, with a few inches of snow, the ground temp would probably be closer to 0 degrees at the surface.

Adding snow to 12 green.

Turf is made up of moisture and if that plant (especially the crown) freezes, it means plant death.  Now, I know what you are thinking - the plant freezes at 32 degrees, well, not exactly.  Time for a science lesson: Turf, through a "cold hardening process" accumulates proteins, amino acids and carbohydrates in the plant tissue.  This creates a concentrated solution inside the plant cell that won't freeze until anywhere from -5 degrees down to -40 degrees.  Basically the plant is making a "antifreeze solution" to protect itself.  If the plant has adequate time to harden off, it usually does OK.  Our northern neighbors will sometime cover greens with straw and blankets to protect greens from the thawing and hard freezing cycles that come around each winter if they typically don't get enough snow.  Three weeks ago when we had the extreme cold temps, we had plenty of snow cover.  Today we had a few bare spots and to give the turf a fighting chance, we gave it natures own blanket.  We won't know if any damage was done until spring.  I don't forsee large patches of dead turf, but I would not be surprised if small sections didn't make it through the hard winter.

This type of winter "threat" is caused by extreme temps and high winds.  There is another type of winter threat that is caused by freezing and thawing cycles - turf under ice cover only lasts for so long.  We have small sections that are under ice currently (mainly in the fairways).  Again - I would not be surprised if small sections of turf did not make it through winter.




While out on the course, we saw an interesting weather phenomenon:  Snow Rolls - we figure it must have been caused by last night's weather - melting temps with high winds.

These snow rolls were all over.

We thought maybe the deer were trying to make snowmen.
 
 

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Shop work

I have to be honest - we are not getting a lot of work done out on the golf course.  Frigid temps have been holding us back and allowing us to get some detail work done in the shop.

Our triplex mower is getting its steering components rebuilt.

The sprayer is getting a new glow plug and injectors.

The fountain received a fresh coat of paint.

Today the benches are getting a makeover.
 
 

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Flood Clean-up

Today we were finally able to get outside and do some flood clean up.  The recent weather and snow has deterred us from getting the debris cleaned up in a timely matter.  The good news is that nobody is around to see the debris anyway.


 

 

 

 

 
It looks like up to an inch of snow tonight, this will impede our progress again seeing that we can't rake up debris that is covered in snow and can't see.
 
As the ground continues to freeze, we will transition into more tree removals and if the weather turns sour again, we have plenty of work to do indoors to prepare for next year.
 
 

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

January Projects

This post is more of a Club-wide post.  As you know, the Club is closed in January which gives us some time to thoroughly clean the Club and get a few projects done.

Teresa has been busy putting together the annual budget

Jeff is adding some color to the Club
 

Shawn making sure the kitchen is as clean as we can make it

Jesse and Josh taking grills apart to do a thorough cleaning

Jim at the maintenance shop grinding reels for next spring's fairways
 
We are looking forward to opening the Club on Jan. 31 with a fresh look and feel.  We hope to see you at the Opening Party.