Full steam ahead

The warm weather this spring has the golf course in good playing condition weeks ahead of schedule. The greens have been mowed a few times and I am receiving comments that they are in the best shape in years considering it is the first week in April. The warm weather has helped dry the golf course from over 4.5” of rain that soaked the area earlier this week. There are still a number of wet areas throughout the course, but I am definitely surprised that we are able to have carts this early in the season, and so soon after such a major storm.
The greens have been mowed a few times and are firming up nicely. Over the next few weeks we will gradually lower the cutting height of the mowers, and as the turf continues to break dormancy the playability of the greens will improve with respect to smoothness and speed. This process is determined by the temperature of the soil. The important thing to remember is that soil temperature is influenced by the overnight lows as much as the daytime highs. This means that the temperature below the surface changes very slowly this time of year. I assure you that we will be watching very closely to determine when we can be more aggressive working to improve the condition of the greens. Based on what I have seen over the last few weeks along with the lessons learned over the last few years, I expect that the greens will be in excellent condition this year.
As you get out to play your first few rounds of golf, you will find remnants of some winter projects yet to be completed. The brush in the driving range and along the 5th fairway should be cleaned up next week. We have been reluctant to rent the chipper in fear that we could not tow it around the golf course without causing extensive damage. There are a number of stumps that will be ground and filled as time allows. While they are definitely unsightly, most of them are not in play and therefore are not a top priority. I hope to have them cleaned up by the end of the month.
There are detailed explanations of our winter projects in previous blog entries. I encourage you to review them, especially “If a tree falls on a golf course…” For those that would like to stay informed you can sign up as a follower. This will allow you to post your opinion at the end of each entry, as well as be notified whenever another follower does the same. Thank you for stopping by, and we hope to see you on the golf course soon.

On your mark...get set...GOLF!

Spring does not officially arrive until Saturday, but you would not know it by looking outside. The weather has been unseasonably warm over the past two weeks, and a lot of people are ready to get out and play some golf. Slowly but surely the golf course is getting ready too, and we have decided to open most of the greens for play. The 3rd green will remain closed until it dries out and we are sure all the frost has left the ground. The 7th green will be closed to protect the sod that was laid last fall.
A number of courses opened as soon as the weather turned to take advantage of the opportunity to generate some early season revenue. While they may have realized a gain in the short term, there are significant costs associated with opening greens too early. Foot traffic and ball marks on greens that are soft and not yet growing cause damage that will take months to heal. We choose to wait a bit longer until we are confident that the greens are able to receive approach shots in order to preserve the condition of the greens for the remainder of the season. The course tends to be very wet this time of year and the greens are far from their mid season condition so we have been fairly conservative about opening them. I checked my notes from the past few years, and our opening dates have been April 9th in 2007, March 29th in 2008, and March 20th last year. We will open on the 18th this year, which I feel is quite reasonable.
We have rolled the greens once with our mowers to help firm the surface and will do so again tomorrow. The greens are still very soft and it is imperative that you fix all ball marks on every green. If this request is ignored we will have to be more conservative in the future when considering opening the golf course. Areas of the golf course are still very wet from the heavy rain last weekend so I would wear an old pair of DryJoys or other waterproof shoes. There are also remnants of various projects so please be careful when you are walking around the golf course. The area surrounding the 7th green is completely closed and you should make every effort to remain outside the ropes until the frost heaves have settled and the sod has become established.
Depending on when you last played, you may find a number of changes when you first tour the golf course. The most prominent is the work completed around the 7th green. The bunker bash funded the project that removed the bunkers from in front of the green and restored mounding that we believe was part of the original design. We have installed and upgraded the drainage in this area, and will be adding more across the approach and into the fairway in the coming weeks. The green will remain closed until the sod is established enough to walk on, and we hope to have the entire area in play in early May.
The tree on the 8th hole is finally down. I am eager to hear people’s opinion of how the hole plays now relative to past years. The health of the green will certainly improve and I am confident that people will spend a little more time thinking about how they approach the tee shot. We also removed some sick trees and brush from the area. The hollow is noticeably more attractive now, and the features across the creek are much more prominent. It is our intention to continue to reveal the character that lies hidden throughout this portion of the property, and make Clay Creek the key feature of the golf course.
Other winter projects include clearing the brush from the property line starting at the top of the hill on 3, all the way down to the field on the right side of the 4th fairway. This has enhanced the character of this area as well, and will improve your chances of finding a stray tee shot that may have wandered a bit into the woods. The view of the 4th hole has been dramatically improved and you can actually see where Clay Creek enters the property. We hope that the drainage swale that runs along the cart path can be cleaned out and serve as an outlet for future drainage projects on this hole.

We are very excited about the work completed at the club over the past six months and are looking forward to a great season. We hope to see you on the course in the coming weeks and encourage you to bring a friend and spread the word about the continued progress at Suffield Country Club.