What a lovely June we are having.

WHEW!  It has been a hectic couple of weeks to start the season!  I apologize for such length between blogs, but we have been quite busy down here in the grounds department.  For this weeks installment, I have a random selection of photos from the last couple of weeks that of the things that have been going on and some of them WAY ahead of schedule.

The unfathomably warm weather has jump-started the golf course in an unprecedented fashion.  Air and soil temperatures that we wouldn't normally see until April or even May have the turf "leaping" out of the ground and growing like mad.  With our limited late-winter/early spring staff, it has been 'all hands on deck' just to keep the mowers in motion.  As you can see below, our December "dormant" application of fertilizer has the greens lush and growing like mad.  The yellow rectangles are where we placed plywood to prevent fertilizer from hitting the putting green when we made the application December 3rd.  As you can see, the fertilizer has made quite a difference in our spring 'green-up'. 



This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago.  You can still see the rectangles today. 

Aside from keeping the grass cut, we have also been out applying our crabgrass control products.  To put things in perspective, the proper timing for this application would be somewhere around April 15th.  This season, temperature models and the blooming forsythia had us out as early as March 19th.  We are almost a month ahead of "normal". 

Coming into the spring, we had the least amount of 'damage' from the Canada geese that I've ever seen.  Perhaps they stayed home with the warm winter.  There were a few meandering about, but overall they stayed away.  Some even moved into the trees.  I assume they were tired of Hank chasing them.

There are two geese in the elm between 1 and 10.  The second is a little hard to spot.

I took some soil profiles from the greens today.  The root length and density are the best I've seen in the springtime for our old Poa/Bent greens.  Thank you for putting up with our greens aeration practices.  They are paying dividends that will translate into better overall conditions during the peak season.  Spring aeration is still scheduled for April 9th.

The roots are holding this sample together.  They are dense and long, which means we are starting the year with healthy turf.  Even the upper sand layer is holding nicely.  The best root mass I've seen in spring in 7 years here.

Overall, it is a startling start to the spring.  Bear with us while we try to keep up with the mowing.  The grass will be a little thick and messy in spots, but we should get caught up soon if the weather decides to get back to normal. 

Welcome back early.  It's been great seeing everyone out on the course so early in the season!