Golf Course News - 3/1/2008
Well, I would like to say that our Spring golf season is just around the corner. However, the continued blasts of cold weather and snow events cause me to hesitate a little bit. I am hoping that temperatures will return to normal or above normal in the near future and we can get
rid of the snow that covers the golf course. In my years at Fort Dodge Country Club, we have opened the golf course about the same time each year (the 20 something of March). I hope that trend continues as I am eager to begin another golf season.
I always anxiously anticipate the opportunity to start a new golf season. The itch starts for me about the first of the year. When I turn on the TV and see the PGA Tour in Hawaii or Palm Springs, I can’t help but wish that we were a little closer to being able to open. This year that
feeling is magnified. The below average temperatures throughout the Winter and the three months of snow cover have been wearing on me. As I have mentioned in the past newsletters, I have some concerns about the ice layer that formed from our first weather event of the Winter on
December 1st.
My hope was that the snow/ice would have melted away by the time that I wrote this newsletter. Unfortunately, we have not made much progress in that regard. With the “average” high temperatures now reaching the upper 30’s and more hours of sunlight each day, I am hoping that the melting comes fast and furious. We are going to try and remove some of the snow pack on top of the ice on our greens to help speed along the process. We have pulled a couple of plugs from our greens and have them set in the window sill to see if they are alive and well. This will at least give us an idea of what we might expect when the thaw does come.
I am still under the assumption that the golf course will come out of Winter alright, but time and temperature will provide the true results. I hope to be writing about the opening of the golf course in next month’s newsletter. Until then………...THINK WARM THOUGHTS!
-Donnie Teeter
