Winter Update 2/19/14

It is hard to believe we are coming to the home stretch of Winter with the finish line not that far away!  Ok, ok, maybe I spent a little too much time outside today enjoying the sunshine and tropical temps, but days like this give us all optimism that Spring is coming.

Snow over knee deep on 16 green.

We spent some time today shoveling snow from low spots around green perimeters hoping that whatever snow melts tomorrow will run off with a little ease.  While shoveling, we spot checked for ice cover on greens and while we did see some, it was not like last year where we had complete coverage on greens.  It seemed where we had little snow cover from our early January thaw and rain event, we saw ice.  Where there was a lot of snow cover at that same time, there was no ice accumulation.  With the given amount of time which has passed for the greens being under ice, I am anticipating a certain degree of winter kill on greens, but am hoping it will not be as bad as last year.   Since greens are comprised of Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua) and Bentgrass, I am only worried about losing Poa at this point.  Bentgrass can survive under ice cover much longer and is what our management practices revolve around to keep on our finely cut playing surfaces.  We will monitor conditions closely for the remainder of Winter and do our best to prevent any further damage from occurring.

Ice encasement like this can cause issues for grass, especially Poa.

There is a little hope with this ice cover.

Even with all of our snow accumulation this year, great progress has been made with tree work directed by our Architect, Bruce Hepner.  My First Assistant Superintendent, Justin Wipperfurth, has been leading the charge by taking advantage of every opportunity to work on the course.  They are close to being done with the work, but will need a little help from Mother Nature to finish.  Many thanks need to be given to him, Brennen Herther, Luis Munoz Sanchez and Josh Leannais for their dedication and perseverance with this project.

Less trees in between fairways will provide more shot opportunities and better playing surfaces without changing the look of the course.