March Madness

With such a mild winter, and now this unseasonably warm March, the decision has been made to alter the course schedule. As of Wednesday, March 14, the golf course is open to play. With this new opening date fast approaching, I thought I would take a moment to share a few of the things we've been working on to help get the property ready for rounds.

At 7", this is far from the deepest area we've found in our bunkers so far!

Uneven bunker depths were one of many hot topics last year, however, they were far from the most pressing issue. With this "bonus" time comes opportunity and we have seized upon it. Fixing the bunker issues has become our first outdoor project of the new year (plowing doesn't count right?). The USGA suggests a floor (bottom) depth of 4-6 inches for green-side bunkers. Upon inspection, we've found depths of 7-13 inches in certain high traffic areas! If you you've been around the club house this past week you may have looked out the window and noticed bunkers with large piles of sand in them.

Working to make sure that every bunker has the correct depth has meant removing material from many. The sand that comes out will be saved, and used elsewhere on the course. Once brought to a proper depth, players who find themselves in one of our many bunkers should find instances of plugging or the dreaded "fried-egg" lie reduced. While the project is ongoing, much progress has been made in just one short week.

Unlike human beings, turf could care less about daily temperature highs and how unseasonably spring-like these past few days have been, or the coming days will be.  For turf, everything comes down to soil temperature- which requires quite a few warm days to undo months of snow and ice. As such, we would do well not to expect any active growth from our greens, tees, or fairways for sometime. Greens will be cut and rolled for Wednesday's opening, but following that I will hold of on beginning the daily mowing schedule until the turf has shaken off it's winter dormancy.

Finally, a windy end of February and beginning of March has left the course littered with sticks, branches, and the like. The removal of all this, along with the usually "spring" clean-up began last week. The course is quickly coming together. Our opening may seem incredibly early now, but before we know it June will be knocking at the door.  As for now the course will be ready for it's players return on March 14, a full six days before the official start of spring!

See you on the course!
Elliott Dowling