(Oops! I accidentally posted before I was finished writing and editing. Read this one and forget anything you may have seen earlier with the same title)
The last couple of weeks have seen more and more snow melt allowing me to access more areas. I am doing the usual messing around
and trying to speed the snow melt by spreading either straight sand or other
materials on select greens and miscellaneous areas. We are lucky this
year since ice appears to have never developed on any greens surfaces. The greens which I have chosen to melt snow are more on the shadey side
or, for whatever reason, have more snow than typical. Why do some greens
have more snow? I referenced a situation two years ago when comparing 12 green
and 13 green snow pack. You can go
HERE
for my unproven theory. After 6 days I can tell you that by using a
medium rate of dark organic fertilizer there was conservatively 50% more snow melt
versus areas left "au naturel". Take a look:
 |
| After 1 Day |
 |
| After 2 Days |
After 2 days the snow dropped about 3" (for both
those days overnight lows were -10 C and daytime highs were +6...but
nice and sunny). As of today, on #6 green for example, there is 5 to 6
inches on the front shadey portion of the green while the middle/back
still has almost 10". A slow sustained melt is nice. There seems to be only a limited amount of moisture on the green surface
and despite the overnight lows of -10 C there still must be
enough insulating properties remaining in the snow as the moisture isn't freezing on the surface overnight. It's funny how
these same conditions would be the kiss of death in December or January
but now it's OK since the wet surface seems to slowly thawing the
subsurface (I guess as the snow pack get more and more funky warm air
temperatures are probably getting to the ground as well). But elsewhere:
 |
| The "hole" left #11 Fwy |
It's been a few years since we have to deal with this but, as mentioned in older posts, the ground is frozen so any moisture from melting snow will run to low areas and sit there until the ground thaws. One other area of note when it comes to water is 15 green. One of reason we tarp 15 is because of this:
 |
| Water "Thundering" off 15 G |
The whole green slopes right to left and both the front and back slope towards the swail in the middle, left of the green. Compounding the water problem on 15 green is the huge bank on the right side. As a result, melting snow always causes water to puddle on this green. Obviously the more water that runs off the green the less the chance ice will develop and the less chipping I will have to do. I am hoping another week will have the snow to a manageable level and then we can get the tarp off. It's a huge job for 2 guys (go
HERE) to do in a day so it would be an astronomical job for one guy....me! As usual, stay tuned to find out what happens!
