Thursday, March 18, 2010


That was fast!  The golf course went from being covered in a deep snow pack to having 95% of the snow melted in a matter of days.  I was shocked to see nearly all of the snow gone from 15 fairway along the woods, as this area typically persists for weeks into the spring.  With the limited amount of frost that we had in the ground, the snow disappeared quickly.

As far as the turf goes, greens, tees and fairways look very promising at this point.  Our hope is for continued moderate temperatures.  The biggest thing that we would like to avoid is a sudden drop in temperatures, say from the mid 40's to the low teens or single digits.  A drop in temperature  without any snow cover would be very detrimental to the grass.  The long range forecast looks very favorable, so we will keep our fingers crossed.

The duration of the snow did produce ideal conditions for grey snow mold, and the roughs are blanketed in this disease right now.  Not to worry...once the ground dries out, a light brushing or scarifying will loosen up the mat and stand the grass back up.  Once this occurs, the grass will get moving again with warmer temperatures.  While it may look a bit ugly at this point, this type of disease is very superficial and will be gone with dryer conditions and warmer temperatures.