Reel to Reel

The golf course had been drying out quite nicely until yesterday's day long rain; we received over an inch.  As a result, there is standing water on the majority of holes and the course is extremely saturated. My goal is to get carts out as soon as possible, but the rain is a definite setback. #2 rough #2 fairway #5 fairway #7 rough #6 tee 

We had a dive team on property today to inspect our irrigation wet well and irrigation intake pipe. It has been six years since our last inspection and we wanted to ensure everything underwater was still in good working order. The dive team went inside the pump house and dove inside the wet well to check for any structural cracks or holes.  They also dove into Big Fisher Pond to check on the integrity of the intake pipe. The intake pipe is about 40 feet out into the pond and is the pipe that feeds water into the pump house to supply the irrigation system. The dive team cleared out 10" of sediment in an 10' radius around the intake pipe that had built up. Removing the sediment will help reduce the weed population around the intake and will allow the irrigation system to run more efficiently. diver suiting up inspecting the wet well inside the pump house inspecting the intake pipe in Big Fisher

Everything is greening up nicely. It is great to see the plants progressing so favorably this early in March. We are off to a great start. #12 green #14 green #1 green rainbow over #2 

The greens have come out of winter beautifully.  They dried out nicely this week, and we were able to open them today. We will most likely put our first cut on them next week and will begin our normal spring maintenance. The golf course still remains too soft for carts.  We are assessing conditions daily and will let carts out as soon as conditions allow.

The warm temperatures we have experienced this week remind us spring will be here shortly. Although the turf has not come out of dormancy, I'm already thinking about Poa annua seedhead suppression. Seedheads will not appear until May, but multiple growth regulator applications will be made before then to ensure the putting surfaces are pristine. One way turf managers try to predict seedhead emergence is by monitoring growing degrees (GDD). GDD models have been developed to determine the best time to apply growth regulators to control the prolific seedheads that Poa annua produces each spring. What are growing degree days (GDD)? The sum of the number of degrees by which each days average temperature exceeds a base temperature (32°F). How are GDD calculated? GDD = [(maximum temperature + minimum temperature) /2] - (32) For example on March 10, the high of 59°F and the low of 52°F resulted in 24 GDD. GDD = [(59+52) /2] - 32 GDD = 24 I keep track of the...

...just around the corner.  Warm temperatures this week have melted the 4" of snow we had on the ground.  The 10-day extended forecast looks promising with temperatures in the mid to upper 50's. Let's hope we've seen the last of the snow. #5 green

I walked the course this morning and captured the picturesque beauty.