SNOW!!!!

A mid spring snow storm has rolled into Briarwood Country Club.  The ground is white as well as the trees.  I estimate that we've roughly had about 1.5 inches of accumulation.  In my 4 seasons here at Briarwood this is the latest that I've seen snowfall.  I remember in 2008 we had snow on April 6th and then again in 2009 on April 9th.  This year it is April 18th that we receive snowfall and hopefully this will be the last! 
With the snow on the ground our work is grounded as well.  In the past few weeks we've exhausted any inside work as we've had rain delays, etc... that have allowed us get those tasks finished up.  So today the crew is getting a day off to let this weather system blow through and hopefully we can get back to work tomorrow.  Weather for the week actually the next few weeks doesn't look all to promising.  This week it will remain cool with good chances of rain while next week it gets slightly warmer but again more rain.  I guess it was bound to catch up to us sometime. 
As for the work we are trying to fit in during the next few weeks;

• Preemergent control down for crabgrass
• Using a 14-0-14 carrier with Dimension.  The fertilizer analysis will give us a pop in rough growth as then the Dimension is a preemergent for crabgrass.  We've been doing this application over the last 3 seasons and have seen great reductions in crabgrass germination throughout the golf course.
• Bunker maintenance
• All the bunkers have been worked and the sand has been pushed up on the edges.
• Application of fertilizer and preemergent herbicide to the grass banks.
• This will help fill in the turf on the banks as well as prevent any crabgrass germination
• Mowing of all bunker banks for the first time of the season
• Rough seeding
• Last fall with the dry weather some rough in the trees that doesn't get irrigation struggled.  Towards the end of this week we will begin to go through the course and prep these areas and seed them.  With the temps the way they are no germination will take place.  Looking again at temps for next week there is a better shot so we'll prep and seed later in the week.  Some areas we will be looking at different ideas of possibly placing wood chips as these areas get so much shade that the turf never stands a chance.  One are is the left side of 7 fairway underneath the trees on the corner.  We'll seed these areas and see what type of success we have, but have chips as the next option.
• Continued Cleanup
• Work along all the ponds to clean up vegetation growing along the edge and reestablish some of the banks as erosion has taken place over the last few years.

As you can see we have a full slate of stuff coming.  We continue to look at ways in which we can produce a better product for Briarwood members.  I always stress to the guys about detail.  Detail is one thing that can help set us apart from some of the other clubs in the area.  Cleaning up areas that have be left a bit wild is part of this process.  We will start to clean up some of the large stumps that are scattered throughout the golf course.  Once we get the loose debris cleaned up we will then focus attention on some other less appealing areas on the course.  One of these targeted areas is between 4 green and 5 tee, beginning to clean up buckthorn and other plants so that we can move the cart path away from the green and closer to the property boundary.