Well, at the end of my last article I was hoping to see you on a dry and warm golf course very soon. We got a dry and warm golf course. Now we just need to see you out here more often enjoying your golf course.
In the past few weeks we have seen some increased activity on the course and certainly hope that trend continues.
It goes without saying that we have been quite busy in the past few weeks and we will be even busier in the coming weeks. The greens surrounds at #11 and #16 will be sodded this next week and the plan is to move to #10 and #17 the week after. While we have seen continued improvement in all the greens surrounds we realize that a fair amount of sod is going to be needed to get them in good playing condition. I have stated in prior articles that we have lessened the amount of mechanical traffic, increased fertility, and improved air and water movement. All of these improvements are still not enough to stop the detrimental effects of the harsh winters. In looking at this repetitive occurrence in our surrounds and in an attempt to lessen the severity each spring, we are going to look into the possibility of covering certain parts of the surrounds that we know have the hardest time each spring. The covers will be similar to what we cover tees with each December. We will not cover entire greens surrounds, just the areas that historically struggle each year. I am also proposing that these covers are placed and removed in a very similar time frame as the tee covers. The end of December until the first of March will be the time that we are looking to have these covers out. In an experiment that we did this spring on the right side of #16 green we found that most of our problem is directly related to soil temperature. My hope is that with these covers we will be able to keep soil temperatures up to a level that is not quite so detrimental to the turfgrass plant.
Once again the Signal Mountain Invitational was a great success. It sounded like most of the participants were pleased with the condition of the course relative to the winter we just came through. I speak for everyone here at the club when I say thank you to the many volunteers that helped make this another successful Invitational. I also say thank you to all of our members for making your course available for this great event.
Hope to see you on the course very soon!