The last 5 days have been very beneficial to the golf course. Day time hi's staying in the upper 50's and actually reaching 70 degrees yesterday. These temperatures along with night time temperatures staying above 40 have really made an impact on the snow cover. Going into the weekend I estimated that 85% of the snow was gone, now I'd say we're about 97%. Areas that remain are piles throughout the course that were created while we created paths for the tree crew to navigate through the snow. This progress is encouraging. It's still early in spring and I hate saying it but, we are yet free and clear from the snow, my gut tells me we aren't done yet. I hope my gut is wrong.Yesterday, we hired back some of our seasonal employees. Weather has dictated the need to bring them back and get a start on course cleanup. Each year we like to have a few weeks for house cleaning prior to opening the golf course. Staff has started to cleanup debris in the rough which is always a brute of a task. Yet, not as bad as it used to be as our annual tree maintenance with pruning and removing poor condition trees has really reduceed the amount of dead branches to fall from trees. All rope barricades that were put around greens and tees for winter were removed yesterday too. Along with removing the barricades we blew off all greens, approaches, and tees in anticipation of possibly rolling greens here mid to late week. Weather permitting we may do some mowing.
The big question at this time of year is always; "When does the course open?" Remaining optimistically cautious at this time of year is very beneficial to the course. We continue to monitor the weather and let that help dictate the opening. As we look at the weather, the following is what we're leaning towards;
- Friday, March 20th; Putting Green, Short Game Area, and Practice Range (off mats) open
- Putting Green and Short Game can change dependent on weather
- Friday, March 27th; Golf Course opens
- This is tentative, weather may dictate differently but this is what we're thinking now.
- NO CARTS WILL BE PERMITTED, WALKING ONLY
Any damage create this early in the season can be noticeable throughout spring. Recovery methods can't take place as environmental conditions aren't adequate so, this is why we remain very cautious. We'd hate to swing open the gates and have conditions in the prime of the season sacrificed due to damage in the spring.
The season is here and we're excited. The winter was long as November was a bitter month, wrapping up with a very bitter and snowy February. The golf course looks to have come out of winter in great shape, always beneficial not having to go through and fix a bunch of winter damage. In the next week and half we will continue cleaning up the golf course. We are working on some drainage blockages to help with drying out. Bunkers will be a focus here towards the end of the week so hopefully a 27th opening will be a golf course in great shape and ready to host its members.