What goes up.....must come down

There is a very fine line between too much and not enough snow cover on turfgrass during the winter.  Not enough snow and the turf becomes exposed and dessicates all winter in the sun and wind.  Too much snow and it takes too long to melt in the spring, sets up into ice, and increases the snow mold pressure.  Just the right amount of snow protects the turf during the winter, but dissappears quick enough in the spring....without too much extra manual labor.

We finally have had enough snow and wind, now that it is nearing the end of January, to remove the snow fence that was put up back in November.  Most of the high backs of the greens that are most exposed to the wind have collected anywhere from about 8"-15" of snow on them.  Most importantly, that snow has experienced a variety of wind relocation and thermal melting from the sun to set it up into a nice, firm composition.  That snow now has no chance of blowing away at this point in the winter.  Andy and I spent a few hours out of the course one nice afternoon this last week and pulled the fences off of those greens to keep any additional snow from accumulating.  The only greens that haven't quite accumulated enough snow yet are 9 and 18 for whatever reason, so those fences will remain up for awhile.

13 green

4 green



12 green