Reflection and Future Hopes

As I relax at home I can't help but reflect on the past week and think about the week ahead. Challenges were among us this past week with an inch and a half of snow on Monday along with a great deal of rain throughout the week. Any preliminary planning was tossed out the window as each morning the schedule needed adjusted due to course conditions. Wednesday was a bit of a break for us as well as Thursday but that meant repairing what the rain had damaged. Wednesday we pumped 26 bunkers free of water as well as reestablished the sand around the edges. Thursday we finished up any bunker work and also got caught up on mowing as the course conditions prevent any mowing earlier in the week and it had been 7 days since our last major mowing session. Friday brought on more rain, fortunately we missed the rain in the afternoon but the evening storms caught us with another inch. The weekend the weather broke again but we were faced with reclaiming our course from Mother Natures wrath. Saturday morning we were back to pumping water out of those same 26 bunkers along with a few more. Mowing of greens took place with some other cleanup duties to get better prepared for Sunday. The full crew was back for Sunday an anticipated better day with better conditions. Normal course prep took place Sunday morning with changing pin locations and tee markers, mowing and rolling greens, raking bunkers, and finishing up some clean up tasks.
I can only hope the week ahead is a bit more forgiving. More rain is in the forecast so I'm sure some schedule adjusting will be needed. My hope is that the predicted rain holds off till tomorrow evening so that we can get caught up on mowing again as well as get our preemergent weed application out in the rough tomorrow. With the rains over the past week we have found some troubled drainage areas. We'll spend the early part of the week tracing drain tile to inspect for broken or plugged lines. Other issues exposed are bunkers where water washes into them instead of around, bunkers should have water directed around them and not into them. These areas will be addressed by raising the surface to direct the traveling water around the bunker.
We're getting closer to getting on more of a routine as spring cleanup work is getting wrapped up.  Spring work left is getting areas in the rough reseeded.  Weather has not been conducive to seeding so this is one task we've been waiting on.  Looking at the long range forecast the end of the week is beginning to shape up and next week looks to be getting quite SPRING like!  I hope it holds true as the temps forecasted are going to give us that pop we need to get all the turf awake for the season.  Most of all though we need this weather so we can finally play some golf!