Reel to Reel

Mother Nature is obviously playing an early April Fools' trick on us.  We received 2" of snow last night.  My intent was to open the greens tomorrow.  With last night's snow, those plans are probably going to be delayed. If you've lived in Michigan long enough, you know the weather in the spring can be unpredictable and volatile.  Thanks for your patience, we will open the greens as soon as we can. #2 green this morning Over the last week, the golf course had been drying out nicely.  With last night's surprise, we will have to reassess when the greens will be firm enough to withstand traffic. Most of our time on the course these last two weeks has been allocated to course clean-up.  After a long winter, there are always ample sticks, leaves, and limbs to pick up.  We have prioritized our efforts around greens, tees, bunkers, and fairways.  We will be working our way out, towards the out-of-pl...

With the snow gone, I've been able to inspect the greens.  I'm pleased with how we endured another tough winter.  It is still early to make a final conclusion on how the turf fared this winter, but the early indications look really good.  At this point the greens appear healthy with minimal injury.  I'm finding some small random discolored turf patches, but it looks to be injury to the leaf tip, not the entire plant.  I would expect most of these plants to be fine and to grow out of this discoloration.  We will certainly know more as temperatures moderate and the frost works its way out of the soil. northeast corner of #1 green displaying slight discoloration close-up of Poa plant from #1 green with discolored leaf tips small discolored spots on #11 is representative of what I'm seeing on other greens There is minimal snow left on the golf course after last week's warm spell.  We have been pumping off excess water in t...

Mild temperatures this week have allowed for a controlled melt so far.  The snow cover has decreased dramatically in the last two days. I was able to see parts of #5, #10, and #17 greens today.  I would expect over the next few days we should be able to see quite a bit of turf. #5 green #17 green   In other golf course news, a large limb fell off of the linden tree behind #9 green.  It appears there was a structural defect in the tree where it broke off.  We will be monitoring this tree moving forward for any other cracks or defects.  We spent a few hours this morning cutting and cleaning up the limb. linden tree behind #9 green close up of the crack  

With a record cold February behind us, we look to a warmer month ahead.  Temperatures in the 40's next week should provide some good melting conditions.  With over 12" of snow on the ground, my thoughts have been concentrated on what the golf course will look like once all of snow starts to melt. Snow water equivalent is the amount of liquid water contained in snow.  The National Weather Service uses this information to help determine flood potential once thaws occur. I was curious on what the snow water equivalent of our snow was.  I removed 1 square foot of snow from #2 green and let it melt down.  The meltdown resulted in 1.25 gallons of water.  This is about what I expected due to the dry powdery consistency of the snow. Below are a few greens with their square footage and how much water will result from the melt. #2 green   - 3,250 ft² x 1.25 gal/ft²   = 4,062 gallons of water #8 green   - 4,722 ft² x...