Fredericton
Hi Folks,
I hope this update finds all well and still excited for the upcoming year. The snow has finally melted, even in the dark corners of the golf course and the frost is coming out of the ground. Work continues on the club house, both exterior and interior, and we are working on the course to recover from the winter.
Like the March Update I’ll lead with some photos of the Club house so you can see the progress.
The slightly warmer weather we’ve been experiencing is beginning to show us where the golf course has suffered from the winter. As predicted from the samples we had pulled early March, there are pockets of ice injury around the golf course. 18, 10 13, 7 have taken the worst of the damage, suffering roughly a 60 percent loss sporadically around the greens and predominantly in the low areas.
The current temperatures (with the exception of a few out lying days) have been below the level where the turf will really take off. I am encouraged by the growth that we’ve had already, during the small amount of warmth we experienced. The healthy plants will take advantage of the warmth and grow more quickly while the damage plants will be slow to show any movement. As things get warmer and the plants find themselves in better growing conditions the less healthy will show improvement.
Our process to correct the damage includes a hard brushing in both directions, fertilize with plant available liquid fertilizer, over seeding with our bent grass seeder, roll and then covering the green with a tarp to elevate the temperatures. We would normally include watering the seed, but I am concerned about any lingering frost in the ground that might damage the irrigation system. This weekend is supposed to be wet, and we will most likely charge the system next week to continue keeping the seed moist. As a side note, this is the earliest I have ever seeded in New Brunswick, typically the first week of May is our target.
That leaves 1, 4, 5, 6, 12, 14, 15, 17 in great shape.