Pins are being pulled and placed into temporary greens. Tee Markers are in front of all tee boxes. And greens are getting a winter blanket of sand. Please feel free to enjoy the short course.
Maintenance
There is significant frost this morning. I’d expect the course to open after 10, but please check with the Pro Shop to be sure.
As in years past, there is no firm date for the greens closing, but we are nearing the average closing date for the Winter. Looking ahead at the forecast, however, the weather is favorable for staying open. As we all know, the forecast in New England can change any moment. But with more than a few days above 50 and nights above 30 in the 7-day forecast, I can easily see the greens being in play for another week. Having said that, we still have a couple things to do on greens to prepare them for Winter. So once we see a couple consecutive days in the 30s and nights in the 20s, we’ll have to close greens in advance, so we can put them to bed before frost settles in for the season
First, the golf course is very wet. There will be no carts today, and possibly tomorrow. The rain is also slowing down leaf cleanup.
The rain is beneficial in one aspect, as we try to get caught up on our dormant feeding. Putting fertilizer out now, will help the turf push roots before soil temperatures drop too low heading into Winter as well as early Spring, and will lead to an earlier green up next year.
This morning we are deeptining greens. This will also encourage deeper rooting and will help keep water off the greens surfaces through the winter – reducing the risk of ice. The half inch diameter solid tines are reaching a depth of ~8 inches. This depth is about twice what we are able to reach during in season aerations. While we have successfully converted the top tier (1-4”) to a more sand based root zone through our cultural programs, deeptining helps us break through the second tier (4-8”) of heavier soils. Greens will be rolled prior to the first tee opening this morning.
This past weekend greens finally got a little firmer and a little faster for the two day Summer Member/Member. Surprising to some was the sight of us doing some watering over the past few days. July is usually a time we see roots shrink. It seems that has been amplified this season with the heat waves in June, followed by record rainfall to start this month. All closely mowed turf that isn’t still slow to drain, requires a little extra TLC under certain conditions. It doesn’t take long for the grass to wilt on a 75° day with low humidity.
This morning we made a long overdue greens application of wetting agents, insecticide, fungicide and nutrients to be washed into the soil. The wetting agents will help us manage the moisture and water usage. The insecticide is targeting nematodes (microscopic worms), which recent testing showed were at or near threshold, and also Annual Bluegrass Weevil. The fungicide will combat any soil borne pathogens that may attack roots. And the nutrients will feed the soil and be readily available for uptake by the plants. This application requires a fair amount of water to reach the target, so greens may seem a little slower. Another benefit of this rinse in spray is the heads also water the greens surrounds and bunkers. Because of our irrigation system, the only way to water surrounds with sprinklers, means also watering the greens – Something we generally try to do with hose alone whenever possible. So this application results in a good deep watering for the rough around greens and bunker faces, as well as compacts the sand in bunkers. We usually use this bunker watering to spend the day in bunkers, checking depths and moving sand. The wet sand is easier to shape than when it’s dry and a little fluffy. Ideally we would have made this application about a week to ten days ago but conditions were just never conducive. It was either raining overnight, making it to wet to water in the morning. Or if it was raining in the day, it was accompanied by high winds. And if neither was happening, everything was already too wet to add more water. But today, on this Maintenance Monday we took advantage of being closed for the morning, and conditions being just right following a busy weekend of play and gave the greens a bit of a spa day. The wetting agents should activate quickly and by mid week, greens should be firming back up and ball roll will improve daily as the weather for golf for the end of July and early August looks almost too good to believe.
The wettest of areas on the course are rapidly improving and shrinking almost by the minute. This spot on 1 fairway that we are maintaining with a smaller, lighter mower, is about 1/5th the size it was last week. And this morning we were able to mow the lower portion of 5 fairway with the fairway mower for the first time in a long while. These spots are being zeroed in on for some additional off season drainage.
First morning of the 3-Day Memorial Day Round Robin, we came into 2 inches of rain having already fallen, and no end in sight for the weekend. Just under 4 inches fell in total over the three days.
We spent more time moving water, than mowing grass over the weekend, but all told, the course handled it well and the tournament went off with little interruption…. to the dismay of most playing.
The day after the tournament, fairways were punched and we verticut greens in two directions.
We pulled a lot of material from greens after verticutting alone.
Greens were mowed immediately after verticutting and cleanup.
The following day we pulled cores, cleaned, topdressed, and brushed greens.
This is the current state of greens, after being fertilized yesterday and rolled this morning. We beat greens up this week, but they’ll be better for it once healed. A nice shower will go a long way in speeding up healing ahead of the incoming heat. Greens probably won’t be mowed again until early next week.
We also beat up the crew this week. I’m grateful they were willing to work over the holiday weekend, and put in some extra time and effort, to get aeration out of the way.
We started bunker renovations on the par 3, 6th hole this week. In the interest of safety, while On-Course is working, we will keep all tee markers on the forward tee. We will push the markers back for the weekend. Any area disturbed due to the project should be considered Ground Under Repair until the bunkers reopen in the Spring.
With Monday being a holiday, this week’s Maintenance Monday will happen on Tuesday. The first tee will open at 7 on Monday and 10:30 on Tuesday. Originally I had planned to pull small cores on greens on Tuesday, as fairways were being deep-tined. But because of the change to the Four Ball qualifying, I am going to push greens off until June 1st (weather dependent), following the last day of qualifying play. These cores on greens will be approximately half the size of what we would typically do after the Memorial Day Round Robin. With some decent weather this should have little impact on play once cleaned up. The plan had been to get the greens done prior to reopening, but the cold weather was not conducive to healing and the verticut lines and deep-tine holes were too slow to heal.
Tuesday’s fairway deep-tine will be done with solid tines, so there will be no cleanup involved. We’ll roll the fairways immediately after punching them, and should have no problem staying ahead of play. You may want to roll the ball over in fairways for a day or two afterwards.
We are probably just a few days away from opening the golf course for walking. Greens are being rolled for the first time right now. The amount of precipitation in the next 24 hours will be the main determining factor. There will be several factors, however, in determining whether carts will be available when the course opens. Opening in March is extremely early. Typically we open some time in the second week of April. And more than once in the past few years, we’ve re-closed the course due to snow. The beginning of this season will include some changes, not only in the way we operate and maintain the course, but also the way the golf course will be set up for play.
By now we’ve all heard about “social distancing”. And there’s a lot of talk about golf affording people the opportunity to get outside – hopefully in a group with no more than 4 people – and maintain the prescribed 6 feet apart. Most likely the only time that 6 foot gap can be closed will be around greens and tees. Considering how often people cough, sneeze, wipe their nose, etc. in a round, we are going to take steps to minimize how often golfers need to touch hard surfaces and shared objects. Are we erring on the side of caution? Absolutely. Remember it’s going to be chilly, and allergy season approaching for many.
So what can you expect, and what are our recommendations? We will not be putting any course accessories out for the foreseeable future. Only benches, trash cans, tee markers and cups/flag sticks. No ball washers, no divot boxes and no bunker rakes. With the early start inching closer, we still haven’t had the opportunity to go through bunkers yet. And there’s a chance we won’t before opening for play. Regardless, I recommend using your feet to smooth or kick out your tracks. We will do our best to rake bunkers as often as possible as staff continues to roll in. I am also recommending putting with the stick in at all times. We have made some modifications to the cups as well. Your ball will go in the hole, but only about half of the ball will drop below the putting surface. This will allow you to retrieve your own ball without touching anything other than the ball. Might be a good time to lay some groundwork and good will on future matches and extend that “gimme” range.
Once we get around to cutting fresh cups, this is what you can expect to see:
Hopefully, by this time tomorrow, I will have a better idea on specific opening day and time. Stay tuned.
…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.
The 7th green is now open. I’ll follow up later with some more detailed photos but I wanted to get this update out ASAP. The immediate surround and bunkers are being wrapped up right now and there’s still some shaping and seeding left to do between 7 green and 8 tee. Please stay off the newly laid sod and play the area inside the ropes as ground under repair. There are several drop circles around the ropes and a couple ball retrievers to use whenever possible. The bunker banks are very unstable until the sod roots, so ball retrievers are best used with your ball in the sand or on the face of the bunker. Also, please enter and exit the green using the planks that are laid out over the sod.