FINALLY - Opening day approaches and Aerification rescheduled

I have been getting peppered with questions and comments the last two weeks about the long winter we appear to be having.  I hate to break it to you all, but what we are experiencing is.....wait for it......NORMAL!  The idea that this winter has been hanging on abnormally long (by the way Punxatawny Phil is an idiot) is really just relative to the last 3-4 seasons.

My first 4 years here we never opened in March and usually it was a little dicey at that.  The last 4, however have been a different story.  Early spring rains, early warm-ups, and just general strange weather have had our first tee rocking as soon as St. Patricks Day.  While it may SEEM like things are dragging on, we are actually just "back to normal" so to speak.

That being said, the pins will be back in the greens Thursday afternoon.  We have finally had enough warm weather to put our first cuts on tees, fairways, and greens and get some much needed cleanup completed.  The 2013 season will finally begin!  Also, as a result aerification will move from the scheduled date of April 8th to April 15th to better accommodate some early season golf and get some better growing conditions so we can heal quickly.

The operator (me) view of #18 getting the winter fuzz knocked off.

18 fairway finished.  Finally some green on the golf course.

In the meantime, we have brought a few key staff back from their winter hibernation to tackle some last-minute tree work and clearing projects long overdue.  We had the projects approved years ago but the last 4 seasons early openings have prevented us from getting them done.  Late winter/early spring can be a perfect time to do tree work due to the hard, frozen ground and safety to the tree.   The first major clearing was to remove the "woods" behind 14 green.  This area was just infested with poison ivy, brush, and old piles of leaves from autumn past.  Also, it's always wet and muddy around the area due to the lack of sun, turf, and air movement.  Most important, this area, along with a similar area adjacent to 13 ladies tee were inconsistent with the rest of the property.  "Afterthoughts" at best.

BEFORE

Also this leaner had to come down for safety and for the sake of the turf.

Thick piles of leaves and poison ivy are all that inhabit this area.  

AFTER clearing and "de-brushing" you can see the sunlight and by removing the brush we have "added" some nice trees (unfortunately they are mostly cottonwoods) that were hidden.  We will work to get the stumps and leaves out in order to eventually seed the area.

 Also we have taken a couple of trees down.  Last fall, after a course tour, the grounds committee decided to approve the removal of a couple of prominent trees.  The first would be the sweetgum tree that overhangs #17 green.  There is a clump of three that were planted years ago to hide 18 and the electric lines from view.  Unfortunately they planted the first within 15 feet of the green edge.   Also, as we know, the sweetgum drops somewhere between 1000 and 100,000 of those annoying spiny seed pods or "gum balls".  This may be the worst species of tree you can plant next to a green.  As you can see in the picture below, the tree had grown to overhang in spots.  It was time to go.  Plus, with the size of the other two sweetgums directly behind, we didn't lose any screening of the electrical lines.

Sweetgum limbs hanging over the green edge.

"Gum Balls" on the green and collar.

Remaining trees still hide the electric lines.

 The next tree we tackled was the "lightning oak" next to number 8 green.  It's health had declined over the last couple of years probably due to the lightning that struck it several years back.  Also, it is in a clump of several large trees right next to the green.  The size of these trees has made it more difficult to grow grass on #8 green.  It was time to go, and we plucked the weakest from the herd.

Distorted bark missing from the lightning strike.

With the other trees so close, it won't be missed.

So as of now, we are keeping busy.  After another week of tree work, the crew will be happy the course is open and we can get back to mowing.  Look forward to seeing you all on the course soon!