Golf Course News - 4/1/2009
The golfing season has finally arrived! It seemed to be a long winter, but we are open before our historical average. With the opening of the golf course I would like to remind everybody to use proper golf cart etiquette. Whenever possible, please ride with somebody. Not only does this save wear and tear on the golf course and the golf cart, it reduces the amount of fuel needed, thus helping our bottom line. It is also beneficial to the golf course if everybody would keep their distance from the greens and tees. These areas take the most abuse throughout the year. The spring is particularly tough on these areas because of the moisture and the inability of the turf to recover. Anything that we can do now to help the turf will give better conditions throughout the golfing season.
I would also like to spend a minute and talk about the condition of the golf course. This winter was particularly tough on the turf. A few of our greens lost some of the Poa Annua. Although this reduces the putting quality of the green short term, it ultimately is a good thing. The loss of this “weed” will allow us to reseed these areas and establish a higher percentage of bentgrass. This in turn will result in a healthier, better putting surface. We also incurred damage to some of our approaches and low areas in the fairways. Most of this damage was the result of Crown Hydration. This is a process that occurs when we get a mid-winter melt and the turf thinks it is spring. When this happens the grass plants begin to absorb water (hydrating), then when cold weather returns, the plant freezes. The frozen water then breaks the cells in the plant, killing it. This type of injury is very hard to predict. With Mother Nature’s cooperation we will have the golf course back in pristine condition in short order.
April also marks the month that we aerify our greens and tees. This year it will be the week of April 20. We will once again be using 1/2 inch tines on the greens and 3/4 inch tines on the tees, as we have done in previous years.
Hope to see everyone on the golf course!
-Mark Siems
