Wednesday, May 11, 2016

2015 All over again...

We all the spring season snow, it now is affecting the course in a whole different way.  Just like last year with all the rain we received in April and May (around 16.0") the course is flooding from the surrounding areas.  With over 60" of snow melt and course is again flooding.  The entire surrounding property, homes, roads and mountains all drain thru the course.  The pictures below will show some of the damaged areas.  At the moment, there are several areas on the course that we are unable to mow and correctly maintain.



My fingers are crossed that we do not experience the same runoff as last year.  Last year there were several areas that we could not mow for at least 3 months.  There is a lot of causual water on the course that we will mark as Grounds Under Repair.  Everyday new spots pop up and other spots may dry out.  Please be patient with the playing conditions in these areas.  I am not doing it to make you made and we are trying to be as reactive as possible to your request.  If someone can please do the sun dance for me, it would be greatly appreicated.

2016, Starting off pretty interesting!

As I sit here updating my blog on a early Wednesday morning due to frost, I opened up my camera to look back at the pictures I have taken over the past few months.  Let start around March 1st.  Since then, we have received over 60" of snow.  On several of the storms we received over 24" in one night.  Being Colorado, in between each storm it got warm to melt the snow causing rapid snow melt.  See picture below.
 
We decided to stick with the Aerificatin date of April 4th and 5th for the greens.  We received another storm the week prior to aerification.  By the time Monday came around most of the greens were cleared off but several of them had to be snow blown off so we could aerify safely with our equipment.  Since then we have received several snow storms and many chilly night.  Sad to say, but after 5 weeks of heal time, the green are only 80% healed in.  (If you could see me, I am trying to pull my hair out, but thankfully I buzz it close enough so I do not have a chance to grab it!)
I have been watching the soil temps daily praying that they come up.  Yesterday at 1 pm they were 45 degrees.  Because of all the cold wet weather, On May 5th, Pink Snow Mold decided to show its ugly head.  Even though 3 weeks prior I applied a fungicide to all the greens, we had the perfect condition for it to grow.  (Picture me trying to grabbing my hair again)
 
 
So, now the greens are not healed in, they are not putting smooth and now they have PSM.  Awesome! Finally this week, we saw a few seedling poping up on all the greens from when we seeded them on April 4th and 5th.  We interseeded all greens at 1#/M with T1 bentgrass.  You will notice that this week and for the next several we will be topdressing the greens more frequently to assist in the healing process and the smoothness.  Please be patient with us.  All the greens have the correct amount of nutrients, oxygen and our undivded love for recovery.  The only missing piece of the puzzle is the soil temperatures.