The melt has been slow mostly due to overnight lows of -13 over the past couple of nights but the snow is moving a bit and with forecast highs of +14 for the weekend things should really start to change. I've been speeding the melt on some back greens by spreading very light rates of black sand and have seen a nice slow sustained melt.
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| #11 Green 7 Days After Adding Sand |
I guess I should fore warn you that the pictures here don't really do the course justice but, as mentioned before, you should take the time for a walk around and look for yourself because on a whole things are good. Anyways, a interesting result of experimenting with different materials on the greens surface over winter included this:
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| 7G Enkamat Section |
Last fall I was looking for ways to mitigate anoxia and tried a new product (go
HERE for a reminder). This picture is sort of misleading as well because the bright green strip makes the rest of the green look funky but it wintered pretty good versus other years when it came out brown (go
HERE for that picture).
I also covered the upper portion of the "new" putting green with Enkamat because of the damage it sustained from ice last year. That result was also nice to see.
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| Enkamat Covered Area in Foreground |
I only had enough Enkamat to do a strip on the back of 9 Green and it too showed positive results. One winter doesn't really give you a true feel for the product but results from this past winter are encouraging and I hope to keep up with using Enkamat, especially on #7.
It's only during the winter I whole heartily promote people to go to other golf courses and walk around; mostly due to this:
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| Snowshoe Trail on 8G |
Heavy foot traffic on the greens will compact the snow and can create ice.
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| Snowshoe Trail this Spring |
The compacted snow takes longer to melt and ice can form. Mechanically removing it is an option but it may cause unnecessary damage to the surface. It's way better not to have the traffic. When it melts that ribbon of turf will be behind the rest of the grass on the green and will probably look like this:
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| Snowshoe Trial #1 Green |
You can see the arc of discolored turf from this snowshoe trail on #1 green. It doesn't look too bad but remember this green was covered with a tarp so any ice formed wasn't directly on the green surface. The degree the snowshoe trail on #8 green will set back the turf is a bit of guess work right now.
Tune in next time for the traditional April "first-ish" comparison picture and possible projected opening dates
