I see the light

Well finally! After a tough start to our season it was a really positive week in the fact that the rest of the greens were uncovered and are in excellent condition. Also you can really see the forward progress with the overall condition of the golf course. It has finally started to dry out these last two days from the suns warming rays and great breeze these. All the necessary cultural practices and seeding was completed to the greens that are suffering from ice damage. There has been some recovery, however temperatures have only most recently reached what is required for germination and shoot growth. I'm going to use May the 6th as a deadline date to decide what will require sodding if the seeding process is not at a level that I feel it should be. Once again, I will get them back asap.

All the greens received their first mowing of the season at a height of .200". That would produce a green speed of about 6 feet on the stimp meter (slow). Over the next couple of weeks we will be gradually lowering the height in preparation for opening day. Today we also began mowing the fairways for the first time. They looked great! "I love the smell of fresh cut grass in the morning". The back nine loop of the irrigation system was pressurized today and the new pumping station performed brilliantly. We only came across one leak and unfortunately needed to order the part. Actually shocking because we keep quite the inventory of repair parts out of necessity.

All in all we had a really positive week and got a lot accomplished. It kills me to see the damage to the greens but this week reminded me that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The seasonal staff is starting this week and the clean up of debris from winter will begin as we work hard to be ready for May the 10th.

If the weather doesn't drastically affect the condition of the driving range we are hoping that it will be ready for use by May 3rd. Forecasting the weather is a tough business so lets hope they have the 5 day wrong for this week. We will confirm and communicate as soon as we know.

Jay Sisko
Golf Course Superintendent

April 28, 2013 Hole ?