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Golf Course Update...

Typically on the weekend of the Masters we are open and going full swing into spring, but not this season. The extremely long and harsh winter of 2014 continued well into March, therefore pushing back course preparations considerably. The weather has been up and down like a roller coaster.
If you are a regular follower of this blog then you know that we have been dealing with ice accumulation on our greens since late December. Now that the snow has all melted and we have had a chance to inspect each and every green we can see the results of this epic winter. We did experience varying degrees of winter damage on our putting greens. The Poa Annua population on our greens is high (typical of an old classic golf course) and this particular species of grass is very susceptible to winter/ice damage. At this point we do not know the full extent of the damage as the seasonal temperatures have not been reached yet. A lot of the damaged looking turf could still be dormant, waiting for warmer soil and air temperatures to begin growth. We have devised a plan to encourage recovery to the best of our ability and it has been put into place. Last week we removed all of our permeable covers and applied a soluble Potassium Nitrate fertilizer through the sprayer to encourage growth. Fortunately we have had a few nice days coupled with a nice rain event last night. This is all in our favour for recovery.
As she always does, Mother Nature is going to throw us a curve ball this week. Daytime highs of 0C are in the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday (yes, that is a 19C difference in 1 day!). Therefore we will be putting the covers back onto the greens on Monday to aid in containing the ground temperature needed for recovery. If the forecast holds true we should be uncovering the greens again by next weekend. We will then be rolling, mowing and applying another shot of fertilizer to our greens. We anticipate a solid recovery, but we will most likely have to do some plugging, seeding and possible sodding in some of the harder hit areas.
The rest of the golf course wintered rather well considering. We do have some areas of fairways and tees that are moderately damaged, but we expect full recovery shortly...if spring decides to show up! Course clean up is in full swing and we are making great progress. Our goal is to provide our members with a clean, playable and presentable golf course that they can be proud of right from the start.
 At this point we are not able to set a firm opening date. We will be evaluating golf course conditions next weekend and moving forward from there. Please continue to check this blog for weekly updates on progress and spring activities.

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