Course is Open

With the arrival of the first full day of Spring, the golf course is now open for walking!

Consider this a “soft opening”, both literally and figuratively. The golf course is pretty well saturated right now. We got quite a bit of rain over the last 24 hours so please remember to fix ballmarks on greens.

The putting green cups will be installed shortly. The chipping green, however, will remain closed until further notice. As a general rule, if the flags are NOT in on the chipping green, consider it closed.

Please keep in mind that it is still March and the course could be closed again due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Sunday’s high temperature is going to remain in the 30s, which could limit the course availability, and Monday brings a chance of snow. As always, I will do my best to update the blog and/or Twitter with all changes.

**Editor’s Note: The newly constructed bunkers, approach and collection area on 7 are open and in play. You should consider the mounds separating 7 green and 8 tee “ground under repair” and take relief.

Thank you, be safe, and play well!

Strange Days…

St. Patrick’s Day snow

…And, of course, I’m not just talking about the abnormal weather this time. Though we have seen our share of warmer than usual weather over the past month or so. As I drove into the club this morning, the truck had a light coating of snow on the hood, and flakes continue to fly. It should turn over to light rain for the rest of the morning, however.

Rather than have the few guys that are already working this Spring, out in the snow and rain, and to avoid working on top of each other inside the shop, I’ve given the small crew the day off. I’ll take the opportunity to do some cleaning – sanitizing all the points of contact around the break room and shop area. With the small crew this time of year, we may assign each staff member their own cart and set of tools they’ll need to prep the course. There will be more to come about precautions we will be taking on the course regarding COVID-19 once we get closer to opening the golf course. Strange days, indeed.

The golf course has overwintered well. With no sustained snow cover, the main concerns are turf desiccation from the winds throughout winter, especially on the higher exposed areas of the course, and this time of year, crown hydration. Typically this time of year, I bring samples in from areas of concern, force them out of dormancy and this gives me a good read on what to expect. To this point, I see no reason to do that.

As always, opening the course is dictated more by the weather and turf, than the date on the calendar. I always like to wait for the turf to break dormancy before we allow traffic. This means, once conditions allow (temperature, firmness, etc.), prior to opening, we clean all playing surfaces. Following that, we will roll the greens a couple times, and probably (ideally) mow them once or twice. I’m sure everyone has seen the forecast for the end of the week. 70 degrees on Friday certainly looks good right now. Unfortunately, with the warmth, comes rain. Possibly significant rain Thursday into Friday. Also, that 70 degrees is sandwiched by low 40s. Over the weekend we may see overnight temps in the 20s. Once we can get past consistent cold nights, I think things will really start moving. But for now, we are taking it day by day. Both on the course and off.

Congratulations, Chad

Please join me in congratulating our Assistant Superintendent, Chad Brown on his new position. By this time tomorrow, Chad will be the new Golf Course Superintendent at Harmon Golf in Rockland. His last official day at Norfolk will be September 29th, but until then he will be splitting his time between the two courses, as Harmon will be without a full time Superintendent after today. Best of luck Chad. No doubt you’ll do great.

2.75″ of Rain and Member Guest

The course handled the 2.75″ of rain we had over a couple hours yesterday better than the same amount over several days last week. When I left for the day yesterday, all greens were under water. All things considered, thanks in part to a spray applied to greens just as the rain moved in, they are remarkably firm. There are still some wet spots in the usual areas, and it’s currently misting, so we will open the course on time this morning, for walking only. I don’t anticipate much, if any, rain the rest of the day, so we will target getting carts around the course later, for today’s 1-Day Member-Guest.

Gypsy Moths

Have you noticed the increase in moths in the air in the last 24 hours or so? The skies around the Club have really come alive. We were fortunate to not see much damage to our trees, namely the large oaks. Other areas around New England have been almost completely defoliated. But the amount of moths I’ve been seeing lately has led me to believe we’ll need to treat some of the more important specimen trees next Spring.

Here’s a good article from today’s Washington Post outlining the problem:

Northeast battles gypsy moths, an insect plague stripping trees bare and delaying airplanes

And some Gypsy Moth 101:

Gypsy Moth: An Informational Guide

Also it appears we have at least one new hawk (possibly two) patrolling the course. The last two mornings I’ve seen the young hawk(s) being taught to fly, soar, and hunt and feed. 

First Member Guest of 2016

This Time Last Year

I keep track of everything worth noting on the golf course throughout the year. I call it my Agronomic Journal. This is what we were facing this time last year:

July 19 – 99 degrees – Wilting @ 10:45
Summer patch confirmed on fairways, 7th fairway hit worst

July 20 – 95 degrees – 7th straight day over 90!! – Don’t know for sure but combination of
pocketed greens and possibly nematodes doing most damage
Sod on mounds completely rooted

Course is Closed

Anyone else find it funny that the post right before this was about the course opening? No? Yesterday and overnight, we received well over an inch of rain, sleet and snow. For now, and most likely the rest of the day, as temperatures struggle to get out of the 30s, the course will be closed. We will re-evaluate when we can see what is actually going on out there.

2013 in Pictures

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Future Club Champions?

Final day scramble for the Juniors.

Very cool gesture by the Club to give up their course, on a Friday morning, to support the week long Junior Clinic.