(Grass) Growing Pains

Maybe it was the late opening or maybe it's that the grass is still growing like crazy, but the start to the 2013 golf season has been exceptionally busy.  It's almost as if we've been squeezing six weeks of work into a three-week timeframe, but we are glad that reinforcements (in the form of summer employees) have begun arriving.  Overall, we are very happy with the course conditions, and we'll be even happier when the last of the winter damage finally heals in.  Last week, we expedited the recovery process by transplanting healthy plugs from the chipping green into some of the more concentrated areas of injury.  The good news is that the affected spots have been largely filling in with creeping bentgrass, which should help in future winters.

Otherwise, the big news of the spring has been the decommisioning of the hillside lift that has been transporting golfers from the 9th green to the 10th tee for decades.  To say that this saga has been a nightmare for Chad and me would be an understatement, and although there will be no lift in the immediate future, we are at least relieved to be moving forward.  We are going to act as quickly as possible to remove the exisiting lift and to get the old track line paved.

Last week, you may have noticed that we removed a couple of trees.  The old shagbark hickory that has affected many shots on the right side of hole four had been rapidly declining over the past few years, and this year, it only had two branches that were still alive.  We will be planting two trees--a maple and an oak--in its place.  The other tree that we took down was a medium-sized ash tree between holes 12 and 13.  This ash tree had very quickly developed a large split and was an imminent safety hazard.  Our resident nurseryman, Howard, has selected an elm as the replacement tree for this site.

Speaking of trees, we occassionally discuss the competing impacts that they have on the health of our turf, and nowhere is this more true than on our ninth green.  We will oftentimes find small tree roots when moving the hole location on this green, but the root (pictured below) that Omar discovered while repairing the back left sprinkler takes the grand prize to date.

Aside from the morning shade issues and the shelf of rocks that the ninth green is built on, these tree roots are one of the reasons why this green is our most finicky.  Two trees to the left of the green are on the chopping block, and we hope to have them removed in the near future.

It looks as if it's going to be a tumultuous week of weather, and 0.85" of rain has already fallen this morning.  But, we hope that you are able to dodge the rain clouds and get some golf in this week.  It's hard to believe that June is just a few days away...