Spring

I am sure I am not the only one who loves to see the sunshine and feel some warmer weather.  It is officially spring but will the weather hold?   

Due to the warming temperatures we pulled the covers on the greens Friday and Saturday.  As you can clearly  see in the pictures below, the greens that were covered look GREAT!  I am certain we are all happy to see this after the winter damage we suffered last year. In contrast to last year this time, we are certainly looking better  At this point we are cautiously optimistic.  As we know Spring weather can still be quite volatile. ( In fact the forecast calls for ice and snow over night) We will keep with the same practices we have been following all winter, not to allow snow or ice build up. 

So you may be asking why we don't cover entire greens or all of our greens?
I will begin with saying that we found these covers under the white pines behind the maintenance facility.  They are very old technology ( a felt type cover) .  An average green cover cost $1200.  Ideally we would like to cover as many of our greens as we could.  However, our budget simply does not allow for it.  Although a bit pessimistic about these old covers we found, we figured they would allow for decent protection.  Our only option was to cover our most winter sensitive areas on greens, specifically those hardest hit during past winters.
The immediate forecast for the next 36 hours calls for an accumulation of 1/4 inch of ice/sleet. I have made the decision to recover the lower half of the putting green, 1,2,the right half of 5 and all of 13. Stay tuned  as mother nature plays her game of "Spring in Michigan."

Snow and Ice removal

As the forcast calls for warming trends we clear snow to reduce the amount of standing water on the greens. The key here is to get all the water off the putting surface before the temperatures drop below freezing., therefore reducing the chance for ice damage. As you can see, there is standing water on the greens. We utilize squeegees to remove the water. It is important to remove snow from the surrounding banks. If not done, the snow will melt back down onto the greens.