Opening the white nine

We will open the white nine today.  The cool temperatures have kept the turf growth slowed.  Recovery from ball marks and other injury is non existent, so if is important to take care and fix all pitch marks.  The photo above shows damage from late fall play that has yet to recover.  Please adhere to cart restrictions and drive carts carefully as the turf roots are shallow and can be damaged easily.
Keep warm,
Turf

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Raindrops are falling......................

..............on my head.  Rain is forecasted for 12 out of the next 13 days.  We have begun to work on the opening of the course.  We plan to roll the greens for the first time tomorrow, but we will see.  Mother Nature always seems to have different plans than us this time of year.  Looking forward, if we can get lucky and the rain stays away, we may be able to open the greens up for play.  We are trying to stay optimistic, but past experience says that the first week of April is our typical date for that type of activity.  Regardless, we still have 9 holes of temporaries out there, and if you have never experienced them, they can be fun.  We are planning on having another 9 hole cross country this spring, the one we had over Thanksgiving was fun, even though my team lost.  The course is still very soft, so if you do venture out, please keep carts on the paths.  Remember to stretch and warm up slowly, (link at left has some common stretches).  It has been a long winter and golf muscles wake up slowly, so avoid injury.  I like the Titleist Performance Institute, it has some useful information for the serious and casual golfer.
See you soon,
Turf

Here comes spring

We are starting to look ahead at the possibility of opening the greens.  The end of March is looking good, time will tell, the weather seems to change quickly this time of year.  I will keep this updated as we continue to monitor weather patterns.  The photo above is of canna lilly bulbs, every year we pull these out and keep them over winter.  We have gotten pretty good at this and now have more than we know what to do with. Time to think about starting things from seed.  Come on sunshine!

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Where did all the snow go?

Well, we look like we are inching our way towards spring.  Problem is, that we take two steps forward and one back.  All in all, the days are getting longer and I can hear more birds singing everyday.

Most of the snow is now just a memory.  Photo looking toward 8 red
from 7 red green.

The course still has some areas of snow, most of it is gone, but the remnants of the great snowstorm of 2011 is still lingering.  The course appears to have done pretty good through the winter, early scouting for cold weather fungus has turned up a few spots, but nothing epidemic.  The winter did some tree trimming for us, and the tops of several trees have been broken off, you will see us out soon taking care of these issues.  We are putting the finishing touches on equipment maintenance.  We will begin preparing for summer, potting our canna lilies, moving our tropical plants outside (in our make-shift greenhouse), and starting other plants from seed.  There is still quite a bit of frost in the ground, and we will continue to provide updates as we move closer to better weather.