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