During January
and February my equipment technician Dave Ertl, has been busy renovating all of
our cutting units, tuning up engines and performing other off season equipment
maintenance.
I have been busy plowing
the parking lot, grooming the cross country trail and preparing next year’s
operating budget. A large part of the
budget is planning all of our fertilizer and pesticide application throughout
the season. Early order discounts end at
the end of February so all plans and orders need to be in place by then. My assistant Jon Lamb is laid off for February
and March and we are looking forward to his return in April.
The big concern
I have right now is all of the rain we received back in January. We received .43 inches of rain on the 27th
and .3 inches on the 28th, everything was flooded under the snow. We still had 100% snow cover before and after
the warm rain event but after the two 50 degree days all of that rain on top of
the frozen ground froze into huge puddles all over the golf course. Annual Bluegrass can live under ice for up to
60 days and Bentgrass can survive up to 90 days. I am assuming that the snow and ice will melt
before we get close to the 60 mark but it’s impossible to tell what kind of
turf conditions we will have this spring.
The best scenario would be for everything to melt quickly and not
refreeze after a few warm days. Our turf
conditions went into the winter in good condition and hardened off to dormancy
in the correct way. Right now there is
nothing we can do but wait for spring.
Last year we opened the range and 9 holes on March 15.
I will continue
to groom the cross country trail on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for as long as
I can.
Traverse City Golf &
CC
