Mea Culpa......

What else can I say?  I haven't kept up with updating the blog and now any audience I may have gained have most likely given up.  With hindsight, I now know how stupid my staffing plan was for the 2015 season.  This isn't the time to go into it but spending my mornings operating 2 to 3 different pieces of mowing equipment on top of my regular duties has exhausted me and, frankly, made me bitchy!

A quick review of the little blurb that appears on the right hand side of the the blog page ("What's the Point?") reminded me of what I was trying to do and how I may have lost my way a bit.  Short updates with pictures not long winded over explanatory essays!  So let's try it again....

Lots to cover but this post will cover something you'll get to use.  I saw another superintendent post something on Twitter with some local weather information for his area and I asked where he was getting his data.  He directed me to a on-line source that sells weather stations for the backyard, meteorological weather mega-geeks.  So way back at the start of summer I bought a weather station but it took until August and help from KGC's I.T. guy, Bruce I., to get it working.  Go to Kimberley Golf Club Weather Station to see data from the weather station.  At the top is current weather and if you scroll down there is graphs and tables which give historical data for our weather station but, FYI, information is only available starting on August 16, 2015.

I know Kimberley is not that big but by looking at the info from the station before you come down you will get a feel for what the weather at the club is like.  Who cares?  Well in the very near future frost delays will be an issue again so instead of trying to get through to the golf shop in the morning to see if there is frost you will be able to look at the temperature a make an educated guess.  This time of year anything below -2 degrees will probably mean a delay.  Another FYI, the stations present location skews temps about 3 degrees warmer than it really is so if you see a temp of +1 it is more likely -2 ish.  I will still attempt to inform players of delays via my Twitter feed as well.  Twitter, another thing I have trouble keeping up with......

Look! I see Grass!

Slowly, very slowly the snow is disappearing from around the course.  Those greens that I sped up the melt on are all open and appeared to have wintered well.  Realistically, an official "we are good" comment won't come until I start to see some growth but I am in an optimistic mood.  I still haven't removed the tarp on 15 green but I am at the mop up stage and the tarp should be off soon.  I did get 7 Green cleaned off and was able to look under the tarp and saw how it wintered.

7 Green 

Similar to last year (go HERE) I messed around with the Enkamat product and saw positive results.  In the picture above the upper left corner of the green was covered with just an ice shield alone while the obviously greener turf was covered with both Enkamat and ice shield.  As I've said in earlier posts we didn't really have any ice this year so the ice shield wasn't necessarily required but based on this picture it would be tough to ignore the benefits of the Enkamat.

If you remember last fall I also used Enkamat under the semi-permeable tarp on 6 green ( go HERE for reminder) and, as luck would have it, the results were similar.

6 Green

As usual, the picture somewhat distorts how the turf really appears but trust me when I say it wintered well.  Aside from trying to give the weak part of this green a head start I also wanted to see the impact of the Enkamat in conditions other than under an impermeable (i.e. ice, slush, and water).  Again, it's tough to ignore the apparent benefits.

One final experiment I did with the Enkamat was using it directly on a green surface without any cover to see if results were similar to last year.  The green was 9 but it still has snow so we'll have to wait to see what has occurred.

For the next week or so I will shuffle tarps around to those greens which appear slow to get going and start to clean up a few loose ends in anticipation of the Spring Volunteer Clean-Up and, dare I say, opening!

A Quick and Dirty Spring Update....Revised

(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!

Keeps me out of the bar....

I suspect my contemporaries would probably shake their head and call me an idiot if I were to tell them about my last two days.  I really thought the snow would melt but it is starting to add up and more (hopefully) in store for the weekend.  I ended up blowing the snow off #7 green and the front half of #6 and put down what Enkamat we had before it got any more "winterish" than it already is.  Like I said before, it's not a big deal but still working an hour or two in the dusk/dark on Friday p.m. might have been easier than the 7 hours of blowing snow/moving tarps/rolling out the Enkamat/re-tarping the greens.  But at least I know it can be done and how long it may take for future reference.....sounds sort of like a justification, no?

Almost 90% of #7 was covered with Enkamat and just a small portion of the front of #6 (for more of an experiment than anything else).

#6 Green with Enkamat and Tarp

Go here for a short explanation of tarps.  For the most part the things referenced in that post are still true.  When we messed around with the Enkamat last year I saw some things that made we want to use it again for this winter.  It seems when we remove the tarps in the spring the turf is sort of squished (not very technical but a good visual).  The Enkamat under the tarp not only appeared to act as a cushion from the weight of the snow pack but also an insulation between the turf leaf blades and ice that formed on top of the tarp.  The result is what you see in the pictures of #7 from March 2013 post (go here).  My hope is by placing the Enkamat under the semi-permeable tarp on #6 it will give this green a bit of help through the winter and maybe a better start next spring.

Counting Down to Winter

We've pretty much completed all the preparations for winter.  Last week saw the last fairway get its treatment and up to now the weather has been cooperating.  The funny thing about spraying fairways is timing.  It is not possible to treat the areas we spray in a timely fashion because of size and weather (as I referenced in the last post) so we are somewhat forced to be done by the end of October.  Although it's nice to be done the trade off can be the length the treatments are left exposed.  We use a product with three different fungicides mixed together.  The mode of action for 2 of the 3 occurs within the plant (i.e. has to be taken up by the plant) while the third chemical is a contact.  Because of this mixture we obviously have to spray before the plant goes dormant.  It could happen that if you spray too early and the fall is unusually mild the efficacy of the spray declines (if you're a "techno geek"go here for extra info).  With respect to the greens the timing is just as important but even more so since disease pressure is higher due to density, species, health, and the low HOC.  The longer I do this the more trusting I become of the chemical even when the weather is less than perfect.  I will always keep a spray handy as a back up and if I don't need it I know it will be used the following season.

The forecast for the next couple days is for sort of rain/snow so we put out all the tarps on Friday (last years post, here, covers all the basics if you itching for more info).  My plan was to purchase a new impermeable for #7 as well as more of the Enkamat to be used under both #7 and #15 tarps but weak numbers for September put the brakes on purchasing.  I did get two roll of Enkamat to use on #7 but had to stick with the ripped up tarp.  We didn't roll out the Enkamat mostly because of time constraints but I am pretty sure we'll have time since there is a history of the first snow fall usually melting.  With no Enkamat available for #15 we'll go with what we've always done (a single impermeable tarp) and hope for the best.  One more point about #15 green.  It is kind of unique because of the large hill along the right side of the green.  During spring melt and even ill timed rain events during the winter water will run on the green from the hill.  We cut one edge of the tarp into the hillside to prevent moisture from running under the tarp and creating an ice layer directly in the surface.  We've done this for years and seldom has ice of any amount developed on the green surface.

The slope is huge PITA when we blow snow because we have to blow the snow in one direction and because of the size of the green we usually end up blowing 1/2 the snow twice, if you follow me.  I am getting ahead of myself so I'll wrap up with a video of the cutting the beetle tree down on the right of 9 green.

The Tarped Greens and a Few Experiments

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.

#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:

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.

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:

Snowshoe Trail on 8G

Heavy foot traffic on the greens will compact the snow and can create ice.

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:

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

Winter Preparations

Just a post summing up where I am with respect to being ready for winter.  This past week I applied the last treatment to the greens and finished the fairways as well as installed all the posts for the fencing around select greens.  Generally speaking the greens are entering the winter in good condition with #7 being the worst since it never really grew out the fall disease and seems to have developed more over the past few weeks.  Since the last spray was completed we will now put up fences (too late for some greens) and start in on tarping.
A refresher on tarps is here if you are so inclined otherwise read on.  The two impermeables are out and ready to be deployed but I'm waiting for more winter like weather.  The semi-permeables are on #1, #6, #7, #9 and #12.  I threw 9 and 12 into the mix because of how they overwintered this past year and the hope is the extra coverage may help limit damage if they become exposed or if ice develops (I've had some success removing ice from the semi-permeables quicker than from a greens surface in the past).
Tarps aren't my favorite because they introduce another variable in the overwintering of greens which can be negative.  You heard me talk of anoxia (low oxygen) in regards to both ice and tarps. Obviously, if there is thick ice tarps help remove the ice but don't do anything in the case of anoxia which can occur because of ice or because of impermeable tarps - go here for a history.  Anoxia is sort of hit and miss when it comes to tarps, and luckily we've been in a mostly miss situation.  However, this year I am experimenting with a product that could help.

Enkamat

Enkamat is really an erosion control mat but it is also being marketed as "a three-dimensional lofty matrix that provides a protective layer over vulnerable turf. Enkamat prevents the formation of an ice layer over greens that can seal turf, and prevent gas and oxygen exchange that is vital to turf health".  I plan to use the "lofty matrix" trait to provide an air layer under a section of the impermeable tarp on 7 green.  I'll be comparing it with our usual covering system on 7 green (green covered with semi-perm. covered with imperm.) along with just the impermeable directly on the surface.  That all sounds awkward so take a look:

Layout of Tarps Under Impermeable

I will cover this whole mish-mash with the impermeable and see if the Enkamat is benefit or no different than what we normally do.  I also plan to lay the mat on back of 9 green surface by itself where ice has been a problem to see what the product can do if ice again develops there.  Further, I will put a strip on top of the tarp on 15 green where we always get ice no matter what and see if, when the time comes, does the mat speed the ice removal or not.  One more thing I plan to do is cover the entire top end of the new putting green that was hammered this spring to see what will happen....which can't be much worse that what happened this spring!

First Try at HOLE OF THE WEEK

This time out we'll make #5 the "Hole of the Week".   We'll start with some definitions:

Weed: A plant growing where it is not wanted.

Noxious weed (a.k.a invasive plant) : " typically non-native plants that have been introduced to British Columbia without the insect predators and plant pathogens that help keep them in check in their native habitats. For this reason and because of their aggressive growth, these alien plants can be highly destructive, competitive and difficult to control" (straight off BC gov web page go here for a good resource for identifying weeds and other good info)

Nuisance weed:  "Hundreds of nuisance weeds exist in all agriculture areas and, although they cause economic losses, they are generally so widespread that enforcement is impractical" (straight from website for Peace River Regional District). 

Part of the "Hole of the Week" task will be to address the some of weed we have out there that I can't always get to.  The prime suspects are the noxious weeds knapweed and toad flax:

Spotted Knapweed

Dalmatian Toad Flax

 And the nuisance weed Mullein:

Mullein

And the weed white sweet-clover

Clover in foreground

There is plenty of all these weeds throughout the course but on #5 they are concentrated on the left bank below the driving range fence and the left hill side at the 150 yard stake.  It would be nice to have each group pull one of each weed as they pass by and leave them all in a pile in the rough and we'll dispose of them accordingly.

One of the regular routines we haven't been able to get to everyday is filling in the divots on the tee's.  Another task for interested players would be to make use of the divot mix bucket each golf car has and fill divots on the tee's we are not getting.  Take a scoop of sand with you when to the tee and fill in yours or any freshies you might find (a late addition thanks to Chico and Spanky: all the broken tees!! Picking those up and putting them in the trash helps keep things clean).

Five tee is one of the few holes we have with flower beds but even then I don't always have a person to attended to the routine maintenance.  Pulling weeds (in this case the obvious grass and dandelions growing amongst the flowers) and removing spent blossoms will help in the upkeep of the beds.

There you have it.  Like I said not a very sexy work list but all still required tasks.  We'll see what comes of peoples response to my request for help. knapweed broucher 

My definition of Cosmetic

The debate is still on and we are still waiting for a formal response/recommendation from the Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides ( see We got a problem.... post for refresher).  I had a goofy idea last fall.  I wanted to stress the importance of the cosmetic pesticide debate to people who golf at KGC.  We chose an area on #1 fairway and deliberately did not spray it with our overwintering fungicide.  To encourage as much involvement as possible on the pesticide issue I wanted to get peoples attention so we spelled out the word "WHY" with garbage bags and sprayed over top of the bags.

The "WHY"

The hope was that the areas covered with the bags would be riddled with disease while the surrounding area would be green and healthy and show no disease.  When people asked what the "WHY" meant I would use that question as my lead-in to the cosmetic pesticide debate.  However, stuff happens.  In the race to get everything ready for winter we forgot the location of the "WHY" and sprayed right over it and, as a result, the area I was hoping to act a show piece for disease came through looking great!?!  I guess the good news / bad news is there is lots of other areas to show the importance of an overwintering spray to KGC but you need to know where to look.  Take a look:

#4 Fairway

The left side of picture shows the control achieved with the low rate of an overwintering fungicide while the right side had no fungicide applied and is covered with snow mould.

I like to leave some areas on the golf course untreated for cost reasons but also for reference points to get an indication the disease pressure from year to year.  The following pictures are from 8 fairway. 

Start of #8 Fairway: not treated

The rest of #8 Fairway: treated

Had we not treated sections of  number 8 the whole fairway would look like the area in the first picture. 

#12 Fairway

I took the picture of 12 fairway from on top of the hill on the right of the fairway.  The line between treated and untreated on the fairway is obvious.

IMO, I don't think the disease pressure was exceptionally high this year based on what I've seen on untreated areas of turf.  I am comfortable with the rate that we used and I would be hard pressed to give up treating fairways based on cost or legislation.  How long will it take for those area we didn't spray to recover?  This is where Poa is good because I know we have a huge seed bank in the soil so, ultimately, the grass will come.  How long it takes depends on weather and other stresses (play, mowing, etc).  There is things we can do to speed recovery but with this years budget we don't have the man power or necessary equipment to address these areas adequately.

As you play the course this year keep an eye on those areas shown in the previous photo's and see how long it takes for those fairway areas hit by snow mould to recover to a playable condition.  For me, none of the sprays we did last fall were for cosmetic reasons.  There is too much golf to choose from locally to risk not having the course in the best possible condition.  Unlike damage from other winter stresses (ice, crown hydration, etc), I have some level of control on how severe winter disease damage can be by applying fungicides.  Actual risks associated by application of products for cosmetic reasons are, perhaps, best demonstrated by this photo:

Snow melting experiment, Part II

As stated on the last post, we finished off this week by taking advantage of the sunny days and tried to melt off some of the snow and ice from certain greens by spreading black sand.  You've probably remember me harping on the importance of a quick melt when it comes to exposing greens in the spring.  That is a fairly generalized statement that has a few caveats, none of which will be commented on this time out.  For today I'll post pictures that show the progress of melt on 9 green over the past 30 or so hours.

9 Green, March 8th at 10 a.m.

9 Green, March 8th at 4 p.m.

9 Green, March 9th at 4 p.m.

Temperatures ranged from a high of +12 to a low of -6 overnight.  The nice thing, even though there is still snow and ice, is there also a thin air layer separating the remaining snow and ice from the green surface.  If the temperatures stay above freezing at night such as the forecast predicts, this entire surface will be open by the end of Saturday (March 10th).

Picking at a scab...

Two weeks ago I went and pulled another plug from 9 green  and was disappointed to be greeted with a smell that goes by many names, none of them good.

 

9G_Feb_17

Although there was green to start with the smell indicated things were far from perfect.

9G_Feb_21

Don't panic yet.  I've been checking all over that green and the problem really seems isolated to back 30%.  Yeah, there is ice over the entire surface but it is not as thick as it was at the back.  Furthermore, the back of that green has a bit of a history of being troublesome.  What I decided to do was experiment and see what happens.  I have mentioned numerous times the risk of exposing Poa in the mid-winter but sometimes situations force you to make a choice.  Any choices I make with respect to managing the ice on 9 will have a limited impact since the damage is done but, even though the area is small, I may be able to glean good "intel" that can be used in the future.

Poa under ice for greater than 45 days will not survive (so says certain research) and bent has over 100 days before it is impacted by ice cover (again, so says certain research).  Research also suggests exposing Poa and even bentgrass too early can have a negative impact on the cold hardiness of both plant species.  More research indicates that the development of low oxygen under ice will also severely impact turf health.  So here's the thing we got ice and (based on smell) anoxic conditions under the ice, we got Poa annua under ice cover for close to 45 days, and we still got winter temperatures.  It's sorta sounds like we are dammed if we do or dammed if we don't or in parlance of Star Trek this is a classic Kobayashi Maru !

I decided that, since the second plug we pulled from 9 green had definitely gone funky, we needed to address the anoxic conditions that existed to limit further damage to any remaining live turf (hoping against all hope that we have a secret stash of Bentgrass hiding within the turf canopy)

Two pieces of equipment you never want to see on a green in the winter

 I used the skid steer to scrape down to the ice and then followed up by using the aerator to chip away at the ice.  It took multiple passes with the aerator in numerous directions before I was able to get near the greens surface.

Initial pass with aerator only left small dimples

It took one guy four hours to get most of the ice off.  After seeing the conditon of the turf once the ice was removed I have a hunch that the most serious anoxia was in small pockets at the back of the green.  Other areas I exposed appeared green and only had a slight sour smell and not the stinky barnyard smell.

Now all we have to do is wait and see what happens.  I did this with a close eye on the forecast.  This time out I wasn't looking to melt the ice only increase air exchange.  I think it is vital that any free moisture been avoided because of the problems associated with repetitive freezing and thawing.  I did this on Thursday afternoon with the hope of limiting the turfs exposure to temperature swings.  Fridays forecast was for seasonal temperatures with snow starting in the afternoon and as I write this I can confirm the weatherman was right on all counts!

Bring it on

I guess it can snow any time now.  The sprays have all been applied to the greens (I've still got one in my back pocket if conditions dictate it), tees, and fairways.  We did a few experiments with different rates and different products including one that is more a plant health promoter with fungicidal properties.  We also did a little demonstration that should have people talking in the spring....however, there was sort of glitch that may have balled up the demonstration but everyone is just going to have to wait until spring to find out more!

Tarp wise we went with the same general idea of laying tarps as we did last winter:  permeable over-wintering tarps of varying weight on #1, #6, and #15 greens and the sandwich approach (permeable on the green surface which was then covered with an impermeable tarp) on #7 green.  A few of the covered greens were sprayed with an extra preventative fungicide application since the humidity under the tarps can be artificially high and that can encourage disease development.  I had planned on purchasing some extra tarps for this winter but decided against it for budgetary reasons and the fact that the greens that have a history of being funky in the spring already have tarps.  I will budget for more in the spring since they are useful for encourage growth regardless of the spring conditions and who knows what next spring may bring?

We went out last week and put up the fences around those greens with a history of animal traffic patterns. To make things go quicker we installed a series of steel sleeves around those greens that we fence every year. For each green we have measurements of each sleeve from a central point and with that information and a metal detector we go out each fall and find the locations for the posts.  This is sort of a throw back to those days when the elk seemed to show up before the snow fell or the ground was able to freeze and we had to fence greens to control damage.  With elk traffic patterns and herd size changing it seems to be a far less of a problem in recent years.  They still show up but it seems later on and in smaller numbers.  This might be one of those things we can do differently to save time since it seems the elk are less of a problem.

Looking for Sleeves

This past week we had  a small accumulations of snow that will work nicely as a insulation layer to protect the short cut turf from the forecasted lows of -15.  We'll keep an eye out for weather changes since this thin layer of snow could, if lightly rained on, form an ice layer.  If we get more snow and it accumulates to around 8" to 10" we should be on our way.

Snow and Fencing on #10 Fairway

Snow Melting Experiment

A bunch of different things have happened over time to make me want to rid the golf course of snow quicker than usual. 1) I received a broucher in the mail a while back promoting the idea of using black sand to speed the melting of snow (assuming it is always sunny!). 2.) The possible threat of not re-registering a product we depend on for snow mold control. 3.) The development of a "biological" snow mold control. 4.) The increasing costs of fungicides. 5.) The push to be more "environmental"

First a little primer on snow mold: I'll generalize a bit but most of the winter disease on KGC is either gray or pink snow mold. Both diseases survive the summer as a spore within the thatch layer. The spores germinate in the fall and grow under snow cover (especially when there is plenty of snow over unfrozen, wet ground). A level of control is achieved by applying fungicides in the fall that limit growth of the germinating spores. Some fungicide efficacy is lost over the winter allowing for the development snow mold in the early spring. The decreasing control is one of the reasons why we blow snow off the greens if we think the disease pressure is high.

Greens will never be able to overwinter without some form of chemical disease control. However, with our fairways there is a greater "buffer" to handle some level of disease. The surface area is substantially larger (the fairway area on #16 alone is equal to the total area of the greens), some grass species (fescues and Kentucky blue grass) that exist on our fairways are somewhat resistant to snow molds as compared to the mostly Poa annua species on the greens which has no disease resistance, and the fairways can handle a little more abuse because they are maintained at a height of cut (3/4 " for fairways vs. 5/32" on greens) that allows them to recover quicker from winter damage.


If we can melt the snow and get the turf surface to dry quicker we will have less incidence of disease. The picture on the left shows about 7 to 8 inches of snow on the driving range. We ploughed a series of roads so we would be able to spread the sand on top of the snow.

The picture on the right shows how much snow melted after 7 days. Temperatures ranged from -10 at night to +9 during the day with mostly sunny conditions. If you double click on the pictures you get a better idea of how much melted in a short time. We will use this for melting the small amounts of snow left on our greens in the spring when we think it is appropriate.

We will see how quick the exposed areas on the range green up to the area we left the snow on. With a few other techniques (such as dethatching) we may be able to lessen the severity of winter disease damage on areas such as the fairways.