Spring allegedly arrived last weekend, although the picture above taken this morning would have us believe otherwise. Men's Opening Day was on Saturday and the first of the GAP matches were played on Sunday with beautiful weather both days. It was hard to believe that three weeks prior the course still had snow on it. After a long winter, the full crew started back on the 7th which meant we were able to get the course fully up to shape for the weekend's events. Prior to that, were catching up on the winter work that couldn't be done due to the snow over. The bunker washouts were fixed, the fescues mowed, brush areas cleaned up and debris from around the course removed.
Brush and fescues mowed and cleaned up
As I mentioned last time, the course came through the winter really well, with minimal damage, so the clean up didn't take a long time. Once the snow finally thawed, we were able to see how much snow mold infection we had and thankfully it was less than expected. The perfect spot of pink snow mold pictured below was on 2 green, showing that the fungicide had started to loose its efficacy due to the long period of snow cover. Thankfully the snow had gone so it could be treated and a few spots like this are nothing to worry about.
One of the other things you see after prolonged snow cover are tracks in the turf created by voles; the picture below shows some damage on 15 fairway. It usually grows out once the turf starts actively growing. This is a nice article if you're interested in finding out more about voles.
The turf grew a little under the insulation of the snow cover but the growth was minimal and over four months. The initial mowing cleaning the brown leaves off the plants but since the turf was not actively growing, regular mowing was not needed. As the temperatures rose, the turf responded; by the weekend they were growing nicely and we were back mowing and rolling on a regular schedule.
An interesting side note was that 4 green had the most snow and the longest snow cover. By being insulated longer, it was amazing how much greener it was than the surrounding greens.
We aerated the back tee at the Driving Range, seeded, topdressed, fertilized and covered it. The covers insulate the turf and speed up the seed germination so the tee will be fully healed my the end of the month. At that time we will move back from the front tee and renovate it on a closed Tuesday in May.
The Range tee topdressed and waiting to be covered
The only other damage around the course was the asphalt by some bridges collapsed. This was caused by the soil eroding by the bridge bulkhead and eventually washing out the soil under the asphalt. The bridge on 7 was the worst and has been repaired but a few others are showing signs of sinking and will be fixed over the next few weeks.
Due to the prolonged winter we are approximately three weeks behind with most of our maintenance, although the associated lack of growth helped us catch up as regular maintenance like mowing was not necessary. Spring aeration is scheduled for this week and so far it has not been without it's challenges. The irrigation pond sprung a leak over the winter. The ice moved the riser pipe so it started to leak. The water also managed to get behind the liner where it is attached to the riser. This eroded the soil under the liner and the liner tore, creating a bigger leak. It has been repaired and is refilling.
The damaged overflow/riser pipe
The hole in the liner
Repairing the liner after the riser was repaired and the soil backfilled
The one good point of the pond being drained was we were able to check and clean the wet-well intake pipe
Due to the lack of water from the pond leak and the warm dry weather on Monday, I decided to start aerating the tees first; the aeration process is very abrasive to the turf so there was potential for damage. We lost Tuesday due to the rain and then arrived to a snow covered property on Wednesday morning.
Aerating Tees on Monday
Cleaning up the cores on tees
The snow slowly melted so we were able to start the greens late Wednesday morning as thankfully the soil was not frozen.
Normally we start aerating the fairways once they are thawed and clear of snow; usually by the middle of March. The long winter has meant that we lost that opportunity and due to rain events since the snow melted they have remained too wet to pull cores properly. The weather is too much of a gamble to ensure that they will all be done by May 1st, so the plan is to solid tine them and make up for the missed aeration by modifying the fall fairway aeration. The solid tine aeration will not effect play much so if it takes a little longer it will not be a major inconvenience.
The warm days last week really got the turf growing and the course has greened up nicely, which is finally showing that winter is (almost) behind us. Now all is left is for the trees to bloom and it'll finally feel like spring.
