Hey folks,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just a short update for those of you wondering how we’re making out. As you can imagine with the weather in the past few weeks progress has been slow, but there has been progress. There’s been enough heat and decent days for us to see the actual damage on the golf course from the winter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It appears that anything with a North facing slope suffered damage from ice not melting through out the winter. Number 3, 5 ,7, 6, 12, 13, and 17 all took damage to an extent, with 3 being the worst. 14 Green also took some damage but mostly related to being in the micro climate surrounded by trees. Most of the damage is population reduction, meaning the greens are thin and coverage is sporadic. This is less difficult to recover as the the existing plants will shelter the seedlings and speed up the process. In addition, turf always recovers faster vegetatively so sporadic growth is something we can work with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To date we have seeded the weak areas three times, once a week since the ground has thawed. Each week our process is to remove the black mats, over seed the weak areas, mow, top dress, fertilize and apply fungicides. We then replace the mats and irrigate. So far the germination rate has been low, but with temperatures in the minuses at night and only a few nice days that’s not really a surprise. The idea is that the layering of seed applications will blanket the weak areas and eventually, when we gets some help weather wise, there will be a burst of activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I took some videos of the course this week and at this point it looks pretty dismal, but its still early and cold, but we will have the course back into shape as the weather changes to help us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n