Cold April Showers

If the old adage proves true, we're in store for an abundance of May flowers.  It's no secret that all of Wisconsin has been stuck in a cold, wet weather pattern, and the remainder of this week unfortunately looks no different.  After three nice days, we're in store for a few more inches of rain.  Not counting today's precipitation, the area has officially received 3.97" of rain in April, and the average rainfall for the entire month is 3.4".  It looks as if we're on track to double the monthly normal average.  As far as temperatures go, the average temperature of March was 26.6 degrees (34 is normal), and to this point in April the average has been 39.8 degrees (43.8 is the to-date normal).  All of the aforementioned data has added up to a soggy golf course and turf that is in no hurry to grow very actively. 

However, the course has been officially opened for the year, and it was nice to see a fair amount of golfers enjoying yesterday's beautiful afternoon.  The April 16 opening tied for the third latest opening on record (since 1973) and was exactly two weeks after the average opening date of April 2.

Although it has been a difficult spring to get a lot accomplished on the course, the course is slowly coming together.  With the exception of the wooded area between holes 14 & 15, the entire course has been raked, and we have been working on picking up the many piles.  All greens and fairways 1-10 have been mowed, and we also dimpled, seeded, and topdressed the greens that suffered from some winter injury.

As many have probably seen, a very large oak tree on the right side of hole 14 fell last week, and it ripped off a few adjacent limbs on the way down.  Unbeknownst to us, this tree was rotting away belowground, and it happened to fall in an area that has made cleanup impossible to this point.  With the slope and wetness of the downed tree's location, we will have to wait until conditions dry before we can get our heavy equipment to it.



My small frame provides scale for the very old, very large, uprooted oak tree.

As the weather allows, course supplies will continue to filter from the shop to the course, and we will begin tackling the remaining normal spring projects that are needed to get the course up to par.  Hopefully, the weather will start to cooperate and that the golf season will get in full swing before too long.