It is beginning!

Today we cut the greens for the first time this season. I am happy with how they turned out. We cut a lot of green turf, telling me they are healthy and ready to grow. I anticipate allowing play to the greens later this week and weekend. I hope to be able to mow tees and fairways this week as well.

See you on the course!
 
-Elliott

Spring is Coming!

Hello All-

As the weather slowly begins to warm, we start to think spring is arriving. The spring season is very important for the turf. It has been “asleep” all winter, now it is slowly waking with a warmer sun and rain. The frost layer is gone but the underlying soil is still very saturated. It will be nice to get some warm rain to flush the cooler water that currently sits amongst the root system. As the soil temperature rises, the turf will begin to shoot out and grow like normal.

I am sure you all follow the weather like I do. This weekend looks to be pretty nice for this time of year. In preparation of this, we have put out one set of tee markers for each hole. We have placed them at the front of each of the men’s tees. I do this in an area that receives little play to save the best areas for the season. I would ask anyone who plans to play this tee, please play within the markers. For anybody who would like to use the forward tees, you are free to play where you like. I will be keeping the temporary pins in for this weekend. The greens are still a little soft to sustain play. If we do damage now, it will be hard to play catch up once the season begins. I anticipate mowing next week, at which time we will reevaluate and make changes if needed.

Now that I have gotten everybody excited about the course opening, I need to bring up aerification. I understand where the membership is coming from in their dislike of this practice. Having said that, there are few things that a turf manager does to his/her golf course that is more important than aerification. I plan to do our spring aerification Monday and Tuesday, April 25th and 26th. This time of year, the turf is actively growing, allowing for quick recovery. I am attaching a link to a great read on aerification done by the USGA Green Section. It is a bit long but worth the time if anybody is interested in what aerification does for turf health.

See you on the course

-Elliott

http://turf.lib.msu.edu/gsr/article/bevard-putting-3-4-11.pdf