Green Speed and Range Tees

Yes, we’re aware that the greens have been less than fast so far this year, but we’ve had to keep the height up to allow for recovery.  And, although they aren’t 100% healed in, the progress that they’ve made to this point means that it’s time to get them rolling a little more quickly.

This week, we’ve already begun gradually lowering the height-of-cut (HOC), and we’ll continue to do so until we’re able to attain green speeds of 10’ with a combination of mowing and rolling.  As you can imagine, it’s not possible to simply lower the HOC to get this speed tomorrow; doing so would be quite the shock to the plants’ systems.  But, by dropping the HOC daily, we’ll be at the desired height shortly.

After a brief stretch of warm weather, the temperatures over the past few days have once again been below normal, and today’s frost was an unwelcome sight.  This has slowed recovery, but the damaged areas are slowly but surely filling in.  At this point, we’ve done everything that we can, and it’ll take some nice weather to get the plants growing and germinating.  Hopefully, they’ll be almost completely healed come Memorial Day.

Although 6 green hasn't completely recovered from the winter injury, it sure looks a whole lot better than it used to.

Speaking of Memorial Day and recovery, the grass range tees have been healing nicely, and we’re on track to have them open next week.  It’s always our goal to have them open by Memorial Day, as we’re aware that most don’t enjoy hitting off of the artificial mats for longer than that.  By keeping the grass tees closed in spring, we’re able to keep them in as good of shape as possible during the heart of the golf season.

Last week, the crabapples and redbuds finally began blossoming, and it's about time...