Winter MARCHes on

The Saga continues, last year at this time we had already been playing golf for four days.  This year we still have about a foot of snow on the ground.  Yesterday we removed the snow off of five of the greens that we have experienced trouble with in the past.

Snow Blower loaded up ready for action

Feels like a never ending task when your clear  6,000 sq feet of snow and toward the end  you are moving it twice as the snow-blower can only throw it so far.

That is how we did 9 and 18 greens and today they look like this

9 Green one day after snow blowing

Now 12,14, and 15 are a different story as we have about 1-3 inches of ice on them so we used the plow tractor and sand pro

Sand pro with blade

In this picture sand has already been applied

In previous blogs I have discussed why ice is bad.  This year we are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it to try and prevent turf loss but mother nature definitely has different plans.  We have cleared the snow many times, top-dressed with black sand and regular sand, installed black mat materials,squeegeed and pumped the free water off of them.

Applying regular sand

Pumping free water off green surface

Only time will tell how much turf has been lost.  Turf loss is not the end of the world and we may have to re-sod some of the areas.  It is to early to speculate yet but your turf management team has many scenarios lined up to get the greens repaired in a timely professional matter so when the peak seasons hits we will all have forgot about the crazy winter we have experienced this year.