Spring Break!
After the ups and downs of weather forecasts from our local sources, the once predicted warm weather around mid March is actually coming to fruition! It really does not take much to get the golf juices flowing and this little warm up will be great to melt snow off the course. Naturally, the first question that comes to mind is "When will the course open?" While it is still too early to make any sort of prediction, we most likely are a month or more away from our average opening date. Last year the opening date was April 17th.
So what do we consider before opening a golf course? Frost depth in the soil, soil moisture content, and snow cover are the most important. Spring is a very vulnerable time of the year for the course and hasty decisions to open can have season long implications. Historically our opening date has ensured that we address these factors well and not subject the course to negative impacts. I am confident we will continue this trend while ensuring protection of our course investments from last fall.
Speaking of course investments, we are all aware of the excitement surrounding the renovations from this past fall and everyone is looking forward to seeing the "new course" this spring. While my staff and I are chomping at the bit to get out and finish up work from last fall, we will have our work cut out for us to wrap them up in a timely fashion. If you remember from last year we had a large amount of areas roped off from traffic. This spring will be no different. As you play your rounds this spring, these ropes will cause a slight inconvenience to normal cart traffic patterns. Please allow me to apologize in advance for this; however, it is in our best interest to do everything we can to protect the fresh sod so we do not have to replace any from damage. All of the sod will look great and may seem ready for traffic, but without a mature root system, the disturbed soil below does not have a stable structure. We will continuously monitor rooting depth and open up areas as they prepare to handle the rigors of golf.
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| This photo was taken early December and shows the immature root system that will eventually stabilize soil. |
- Spring cleaning of the course
- Repairing any disturbed areas around the Clubhouse
- Seeding the beginnings of fairways where we stripped sod for collar and approach expansions around greens
- Repairing any damaged sod from wind desiccation or animal damage
- Replacing any damaged cart paths from renovation
- Replacing asphalt and installing curbing around the back of the clubhouse
- Renovating former landscape beds to turfed areas
- Grinding tree stumps and preparing them for seed
- Haul road repair and seeding
- Cart path edge sod repair
- Spreading material stockpiled from renovation
- Renovating and seeding any disturbed native areas
- And of course general course maintenance and preparation for daily play
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| Areas like this at the beginning of fairways will be seeded back to fairway or in this case, rough. |
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| The fairway expansion on the left side of 9 fairway will also need time to establish from aeration cores and seed. |
- Keeping golf carts out of roped off areas
- Using ball retrievers to remove balls from seeded areas
- Entering bunkers from the low or back side
- Encouraging fellow golfers to mind these three requests
With your help, my staff and I will be able to complete this work in due time. Any time we spend away from our list making repairs to areas will slow our process and add cost to the bottom line. Having a motivated and skilled staff is a blessing which we benefit from every day and there is no doubt in my mind they are up to the task. To start the year we will keep the bunkers closed and have ball retrievers stationed to help you retrieve your ball. As we move forward, we will remove retrievers and replace them with bunker rakes to show which ones are ready for play.
We can finally start to think spring, golf, and camaraderie and not a moment too soon!
See you on the course
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