Second week in February and we have a snow pack from 0 to maybe 9" in the real shady spots. Those numbers are more like late March! Like I said in the last post we didn't want rain and above normal temperatures. If you've been in Kimberley for the last three weeks you'll know that's exactly what we got. As it stands now we have a mixture of thawed greens with no ice, some greens with thin ice over a mostly thawed surface, the odd one with ice/slush, and still some with frozen surfaces. All things considered I'm still optimistic since I know when, where and what greens started to get ice and in all cases the ice is very thin and every green has that nice "green" smell. The following pictures are from Friday, Feb. 13.
 |
| 9 Green |
 |
| 18 Green |
 |
| 16 Green |
When I had another look around on Sunday, Feb. 15 I saw less water/slush and more thawed surfaces. Although it is somewhat true for most years, this year is turning into one of those years where the spring temperatures and the melting conditions will dictate the condition of the greens at the start of our year. With the melt being so early and there still being lots of potential for cold temperatures the chances for damage from crown dehydration (freeze/thaw damage) and/or direct low temperature kill (for the poa only) are of far greater concern this year than in those years when the melt and turf exposure has occurred at a more traditional time. Right now the strategy is to track the ice formation and keep an eye conditions under the ice and, I believe, delay exposing anything deliberately until we get closer to the middle of March.
Oops, forgot to add this little reading for you. I sometimes have trouble digesting the gimmicky trends floating around golf to increase play. The following article (GO HERE) touches on those trends and I find myself sympathizing with the authors views. Take a look and see what you think.
