An Early Christmas

Based on the current weather forecast, it looks as if the Madison area will have a very white Christmas, and there's nothing more that we would like to see than 12" of snow covering the course from Thursday until the end of February; wishful thinking, I know.  In a recent Wisconsin State Journal article, a soil scientist at UW-Madison estimated that we need 4-5" of rainfall (or its equivalent in snowfall) over the winter to replenish the soil moisture that was lost this year.  The relatively nice weather that we've had in recent weeks has allowed us to essentially wrap things up on the course for the year.

Impermeable plastic covers have been installed on 3, 11, and 17 greens, and these covers are designed to minimize the potential for winterkill on these three heavily-shaded and Poa-filled greens.  Last year, we had the same covers on 11 and 17 greens, but the dry, mild winter didn't provide much of a test.  Otherwise, the greens' perimeters have been roped and/or snow fenced to keep sledders and cross-country skiers from going across them.

Eleven green is covered and ready for winter.

Last week, we also removed three trees in and around the sixth hole.  Two scraggly, declining ash trees that were near the bathroom by six tee were taken down, and a relatively large silver maple on the right side of the fairway landing zone was also eliminated.  The silver maple ended up being much more rotten than it appeared to be, and we were quite glad that this safety risk was taken care of.

Today, Santa came early to the shop and delivered a shiny, new rough mower.  Our old mower has over 8000 hours on it, and by purchasing the new mower in 2012, a substantial amount of money was saved due to Tier 4 emission standards that will increase equipment costs in 2013 and beyond.  We will still keep the old mower around as long as it continues to run and use it primarily to mulch leaves in the fall.

Santa also stopped in the pumphouse today and dropped off the repaired version of the irrigation pump that went down in early October, and the crew from LW Allen spent the morning reassembling the pump, as shown below.

Enjoy the snowstorm (if the weather forecasters are correct), and stay safe.