The Story Game

  Did you ever play that game when you were a kid where you sat in a circle, someone whispered something to the person seated next to them, and it continued around the room until the last person had to tell the story out loud again? Inevitably the story at the end was not the same as the story at the beginning, and everyone had a laugh.
  Such was my situation last Friday, when more than one frequent player at Fox Meadow stopped me to comment on the state of the greens. Earlier in the week I had mentioned to someone that the greens had wintered well and that they were as good as I have seen them coming out of the winter. Well that was the start of the story. By the weeks end I had spoke to a few season pass holders at the restaurant opening, all telling me that they had heard that the greens were "the best they have ever been."
 Well, this post is to let you know that while the greens did winter well, you still might notice some blemishes here and there. Some greens are quite good, while others, while still very good, may not look 100%. Here are a few photos to illustrate my point.

                                               

                                                     One of the really good ones, #11

                                           Some of the blemishes showing up on #8 green

                                                              A closer look on #12

                                    Extreme close up, notice the bentgrass coming through

  While it would be nice if every green was blemish free, it is not all together that problematic to see these spots. They are the result of dead poa annua plants. We have been on a poa eradication program for a couple of seasons now and it leaves the plants very weak going into the winter. Any amount of ice cover seems to really knock the stuffing out of the poa and leaves it struggling in the spring.
  There are lot's of new bentgrass shoots popping through the dead poa spots, and soon the bentgrass will fill the voids completely. By tipping the balance to more bentgrass, we will set ourselves up for better winter performance and higher quality greens throughout the season.

Thanks for reading
paul m

Interesting Link

I follow a lot of turf blogs. I read anywhere from 30-40 different one per week. They are a never ending source of information for all things turf, and are very helpful. Sometimes they are so good that I will en devour to pass them along to you.
 One I read today was particularly timely. It was a post by fellow superintendent Sean McCue, and he is in charge of the turf at The Country Club at Castle Pines, located in Colorado. He had a simple, yet informative post on something no one like to talk about, winter injury. He takes the time to explain the different types and their causes, and even though he may be located in Colorado...winter is coming...

 http://cccpgcm.blogspot.ca/2013/04/winter-injury-guide.html

thanks for reading
paul

Getting Closer

 Well things are definitely shaping up here at The Meadow. Most of the crew has been back for the last couple of weeks and things are progressing really well. Here are a few of the things that we have gotten to:
• the course clean up is complete
• the landscape clean up is 85% done (still some work to do behind 18 green)
• bunkers are cleaned and trimmed ( we will start placing sand soon)
• the lower parking lot at the shop was renovated
• the first of the greens were mowed
Here are a few pictures of the course...

 

This is one from the first tee   

 

From the middle of the 14th fairway

The big Academy green after the first mow

#11 green after the first mow

We will be mowing a bunch come this Friday. We plan to tackle the greens (mow/roll), the tees, approaches, and a few of the fairways. Next week we will continue with the tune up in preparation for opening day. The guys are working hard and definitely looking forward to seeing all of you.

Thanks for reading

paul