With that, it is time that we start evaluating the health of the turf as it comes out of winter. We went out the last few days to remove all the extra snow on the greens with our tractor to see how they were looking. While it looks like mother nature would have done this work for us within another week or so, a prolonged melt/freeze process this late into spring opens up the opportunity for plants that may have broken dormancy early to take up extra water and literally burst from the inside (referred to as crown hydration). Removing the excess snow and water before the big melt arrives should limit the possibility of that occurring.
I have said this throughout the winter, but it would appear that we should have very limited turf death on the golf course this spring. We were blessed with a thick layer of insulating snow back in the end of November, and managed to make it through the entire winter without a melt cycle or rain event that would have formed any ice.
That being said, we are still going to endure a winter of about 130 days of snowcover with temperatures that dropped as low as -33, so it is still unlikely that we will come out completely unscathed. However, I am optimistic that whatever damage we do see will be fairly limited. I guess we will find out here in another few weeks!
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| Our blizzard on Monday wasn't exactly helpful, but it was a beautiful morning the next day after almost a foot of new snow. |
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| There definitely wasn't as much snow to remove as last year, but it was still a solid 3 day process. |
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| 3 green in particular was deep, and really difficult to clear. |
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| 16 green all cleared off and looking mostly good |
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| Collars are of course our major concern, as they tend to contain the most Poa Annua and are always in rough shape. From the ones I have seen so far, I think they are mostly alive....mostly. |
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