Happy Spring!  We have been experiencing beautiful weather over the last few days.  Spring is a great time of year as the flowering trees are in full bloom.  As the trees are flowering, the turf, primarily the Poa Annua, is attempting to flower as well.  This is evident by the little white clusters on the greens, tees, and fairways.  We try to minimize this with a combination of growth regulators that are supposed to suppress the seedhead production.  Every year, the level of control seems to differ based on the weather conditions and when the products were applied.  The reason that we try to minimize the "flowering" is that it can become disruptive on the putting surface.  From an agronomic standpoint, we try to reduce it so that the plant doesn't use so much energy to produce the seed.  By conserving this energy, the plant will be stronger going into the summer battle.  The seedheads that have broken through will be present for about two weeks.  After that, we will return to normal conditions and enter summer ready for another great year.

Wacky Weather

What a strange year we have had so far.  There are not many years that we can say that we were open for golf for all 12 months.  As many of you experienced, we did just that.  Although I can recall golf in January, I am not aware of The Moors being open in February in the past.  We had some wonderful weather throughout the winter, however, our typical spring is struggling to arrive.  What does this mean for the turf?

For the most part, we are beyond any major danger.  The main concern with the unseasonably warm weather this winter is that the turf begins to "deacclimate" meaning it will begin to wake up and operate as normal.  During this process, the plant takes up water to "hydrate" itself.  If this happens followed by a severe cold snap, the turf can fracture and kill the plant.  This is particularly prevalent in Poa Annua which we have on our greens.  One way of preventing this is to not encourage the plant to wake up.  As a result, we opted not to mow the surfaces during these warm periods which would encourage the plant to break dormancy.  We didn't suffer any damage.  The course came through the wacky winter in great shape.

We are looking forward to more spring like temperatures with some consistency in order to get into full swing.  As of now, we have a very limited staff.  When the weather behaves, we will continue to have more return.

Many of the evening low temperatures are below the level of frosting.  Please be conscious of this before stepping foot on the course.  Damage to the turf due to frost damage will take a long time to recover.  When in doubt, wait for permission from the golf shop before walking/driving on the turf.

Summer will be here soon.....I promise!

New Year...New Blog

Happy New Year to all!  Unfortunately, the blog that I used is no longer available so I had to start fresh.  Please be sure to subscribe to this new blog to receive the latest in golf course happenings.