Even though the calendar says it's March 1st, the recent weather feels more like May. Grass is breaking dormancy and starting to green up. Sap is flowing in the Maple trees and the leaf buds are turning red. All signs point to an early spring, but I anticipate a few more snow/cold weather events. With that in mind, we're finishing up our tree work in the next two weeks so we can start getting the courses ready for the season. Tuesday and Wednesday of this week were rain-free, so we took the opportunity to roll greens and change cups. Greens are traditionally rolled two or three times before the first mowing to smooth imperfections created during winter freeze/thaw cycles. If we didn't roll, the bumpy putting surface would cause the mowers to scalp the plants and possibly lead to turf loss. While the rollers were out, the staff smoothed tire tracks in several fairways created during our snow mold fungicide application in December.
As for the tree work this week, we removed two more large cherry trees overhanging the back of the gold/blue tee on Lakes 7. Both trees had a significant amount of dead wood high in the canopies that were safety concerns should the dead limbs break off. We then moved to the wooded area right of the green on Lakes 6 to remove several trees that were blocking full view of the green. A large area of brush was removed in this same area last year during the tee renovation to improve sightlines, but more work was needed. With the trees and brush removed, players on the blue and gold tees can now see the right side of the putting surface along with the short-grass collection area.
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| Blue tee renovation on Lakes 6. Notice the cleared area on the far side of the pond that used to be thick brush. |
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| Current view of 6 green from the gold tee |
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