Spring is Here!

According to meteorologist the winter is over, well the meteorological winter.  This past Saturday, March 1st, 12:00am was the end of meteorological winter.  Well, they were wrong as we received another 5" of snow later that day and into the evening.  Guess it's only fitting the start another month with more snow.  I don't know about you but I'm sick of it!  Normally, I'm not all too disappointed if winter extends on a bit later but not a winter like this.  The winter of 2013/2014 will be remembered for years to come with record breaking snows and temperatures.  I guess I just look at conditions now and have a suspicion the spring is just going to be a tough one to get the golf course cleaned up and get some of these projects knocked out.

Winter duties are almost wrapped up.  Guys are finishing the last details on some of the course accessories and then we are onto detailing equipment.  March always signifies the return of some crew members although not this year.  I had high hopes of getting an early spring so we budgeted for a handful of staff members to come back at the start of March, but that number was reduced.  A few guys are back and helping out finish a few inside tasks, but at as soon as we can get outside, we will.  Cleanup is always a laborious task.  This season will be slightly more labor intensive as the snow wrinkled our tree pruning and cleanup plans along with tree removal and cleanup plans.  Normally we are able to get all debris run through the chipper and disposed of while trimming but this year the snow depths kept that equipment off the golf course.  Snow also kept the stump grinder equipment off the course as well so we are looking for the opportunity to get stumps ground from our Ash tree removals and other hazardous trees.

Equipment maintenance is progressing at a nice pace.  Matt our new Equipment Manager is doing a tremendous job inspecting all pieces of equipment and making the necessary repairs.  Some equipment is needing more work than others as a handful of it was replaced last spring.  Preventative maintenance is always key, inspecting each piece with a fine tooth comb is a must.  All walking mowers, fairway mowers, and carts are ready to bust out the door, but again here we are waiting for the snow to melt.  Currently Matt is spending a good amount of time on our older rough machines.  These machines were purchased in 2008 and are at that point of time and money investment.  Again, a great deal of this is preventative maintenance to reduce the down time on machinery but also increase quality of performance.

Weather has been quite delightful this winter, well it was at the start.  Fall produced a nice climb back down the thermometer allowing for the turf to harden off, something that hasn't been the case the previous few years.  Hardening off is basically the plant getting itself ready for colder temperatures and shutting down it's physiological processes.  Early December we were the recipients of a good blanket of snow to insulate the turf.  A nice blanket of snow is somewhat like a comforter for the turf, keeps the turf insulated and protected from cold temperatures and harsh winter winds.  The snow cover remained in tack till end of December and early January when we had a few warm cycles pass through causing snow to melt.  Unfortunately we lost a lot of that comforter and saw the production of ice as temperatures dropped and froze all the standing water from melting snow.  Our first significant ice accumulation followed a January 11-13th thaw followed up by the first "polar vortex".  We are monitoring the golf course and things seem to be fairing on the good side.  Plugs were pulled on areas we knew were under ice, this is done to see their performance inside under warm temps.  These plugs were pulled at 30 days following ice formation and seem to be doing great.  Rain a few weeks back along with a little bit of thaw added to the already accumulated ice.  Days are adding up under ice coverage and a good thaw isn't in near site so the clock is ticking.  With the weather a few weeks back we are taking some time to pull a few more plugs to see how things are, now roughly 7 weeks from initial ice formation.

Plugs pulled from the course to check viability.  2 top plugs are from 1 and 8 greens; bottom 3 are from 2, 7, and 14 fairways.

As spring develops and allows us to begin our spring cleaning tasks we will keep you posted.  We have a good amount of cleanup to take place along with projects to do.  My fingers are crossed that the weather will improve soon and the spring will be great.  Not only does it need to be great for our tasks but we want to see you all our here playing golf!  Be safe and stay warm out there, soon we hope there is green grass and flowers blooming!

Included here are a few articles that have been put together by our local CDGA Pathologist along with researchers from Michigan State.  Items include information about the winter and how this winter may impact the turf underneath all the snow and ice:

http://www.cdgaturf.org/sr/14/winter%202014.pdf

http://msuturf.blogspot.com/2014/03/ice-and-poa-survival-update.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter