A Winter with El Nino

Our mild winter with little snowfall and record setting rainfall is certainly one to remember.  From mid November to the end of December, we saw just over 6 inches of rain!  Its hard to believe homeowners could have mowed their lawns before their holiday guests arrived.

The warm temps and rain fall did not allow grass to harden off for winter.  It makes me a little more precautious about making decisions to remove snow and ice to avoid winter injury.  Up until now, greens have been looking good with little to no ice formation.  We will take advantage of the warm up this weekend to remove snow cover on our putting surfaces and help reduce our chances of winter injury this spring.

Great to see without ice on the surface.

We shoveled a few test plots to see if removing snow before
plummeting temps is a worthy cause.

Winter work is progressing nicely thanks to my staff.  They have been working on a few tree removals through parts of the course where we have not done much work previously.  This work continues to focus on improved shot variety, exposure of specimen trees, and improving sunlight on playing surfaces where turf is weak.  The look of these areas just keeps getting better and better and makes me look forward to Spring even more.

Improved view off the back of 4 green by removing 1 tree.

View from 6 green looking toward 7 green will open up with
a few more removals of "weed" trees.

The Silver Maple hanging over 5 fairway was removed first
for safety concerns and second for improved shot making.

Having the Locust removed left of 6 approach will open shots
to the green from the fairway.

A unique view of 2 fairway from the right rough.

Buried under layers of trees on 3 is one of the most beautiful
American Elms I have seen.  Rare to see these today.

Think Spring!

Nothing compares to time with these two.