Not so n ice...

                                            This is what the greens look like under the snow...

  It has been another fascinating winter here on the Island. No real snow accumulation until the end of January, lot's of temperature fluctuation, some rain, and lot's of sleepless nights for Superintendents. We had a particularly interesting weather event back on January 27th that gave us the conditions you see in the above picture. Instead of an all out snowstorm, we got a snow/freezing rain/rain event that left a solid 1-2' layer of ice on the the whole golf course. Not so good. But I am encouraged by what we are seeing lately.

                                                                Notice the layer of ice


                                 Below are a couple of plugs that I removed from the 6th  green.

                             This first plug concerned me a bit. Notice the matted, off color turf.

This is the same plug a week later, living in the front window of the shop. Notice the healthy new growth.

  So how does this translate in to golfing terms?
Well at this point I am cautiously optimistic. The plugs I took out all grew well in the shop and that is a good sign. We also took to blowing off the greens to let the sun get at the ice layer and speed up the melting process. This worked really well, with a few of the first ones that were blown off actually baring off down to the turf. The good news is that the turf underneath looks healthy. That is not to say that we are out of the woods completely, but it is encouraging none the less.

Stay tuned for another update next week.
Thanks so much,
Paul m