Golf Course Update March 2014

Spring is only days away according to the calendar; but Mother Nature has other ideas for our area. The coldest winter in many years has pounded the northeast with storm after storm and some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded. The month of March has been so far the coldest on record.

Presently the golf course has up to a foot of snow and ice on the playing surfaces. A snow cover has been present since early January. The prolonged cover can present problems for turf grass. The variety of grasses that we have on our greens, tees, and fairways can usually survive being under snow cover for 90 days. When ice is present under the snow that survival time decreases to 60 days.  The golf and grounds crew has been monitoring the playing surfaces for several weeks and this week we decided to remove the upper layer of snow to expose the 1 to 3 inches of ice below the snow. In most areas the ice is removed as well when thawing starts. . The danger of constant melting and freezing can cause the grass plant to die from anaerobic conditions, (the lack of gas exchange), and crown hydration that can develop under the ice. Removal of snow and ice is a delicate procedure. Many hours of hand labor is required to clear one green. A combination of warmer weather and through the efforts of the golf and grounds crew all of our greens have been cleared of snow and ice and playing surfaces look viable.

The golf course will remain closed throughout the melt down process. Even after the snow and ice are gone, the several inches of frozen ground has to thaw and stabilize to support any foot or cart traffic. Traffic on as little as 1 to 2 inches of thawing ground can cause damage to both the playing surfaces and the developing root systems  that can take several weeks to recover from. The colder temperatures this winter have produced a frost level that is several inches below what the average frost depth usually is.

We will continue to do all we can to get the course open ASAP and keep updating the membership on conditions as they improve. The course website and blog will have weekly updates starting March 24^th.

Peter Rappoccio, CGCS