Tag: frost delay

Frost Delay

dmcgowan72Leave a comment

Its 29 degrees as of 7:15 am. Play will be suspended until 10 am.

Cart traffic and or foot traffic can be lethal to grass that has frost. Ice crystals inside the plant will puncture the cell walls and cell organs when subjugated to traffic. It will turn black and wont fully recover until the next season. If overnight lows are in the 30s with no wind frost delays are to be expected. Please plan on playing at 9:30 or 10am.

The weather this past September was none like we have experienced in many seasons. The golf course has been in phenomenal shape with gorgeous weather to play golf.

Recently we have focused our efforts on leaf clean up and less on normal routine maintenance. We have been mowing the playing surfaces on a as needed basis so fairways, tees, and approaches are a little less manicured this time of year. The growth on the greens have slowed down considerably and we are mowing them every other day.

I am planning to dethatch the greens the week of October 21st. We will perform a deep vertical mowing followed by a heavy application of sand. That will be followed by a solid tine aerfication to create sand channels into the greens for better rooting. Please check the blog for exact dates and timelines which will be dictated by weather.

The staff and i have 5-6 weeks left on the property and we are starting to break down the course as well as the property. The coolers and divot boxes have been put away for the season. Benches, ballwashers, and other accessories will be stored in the near future. The tennis courts will be broken down soon. Tennis play can continue until Putnam takes up the nets and lines.

Still plenty of good golf as the season starts to wind down. Hope to see you out in the fairways!

Lean and Mean

dmcgowan72Leave a comment

The weather has been spectacular the past few weeks with ideal conditions to play golf. The greens have been on the dry side and with very little nitrogen inputs they have been lean and mean.

We have taken advantage of this great weather to complete a number of important cultural practices. We finished aerating all the tees and fairways. We aerated lower 8 fairway for a second time this year as well as the rough on the right side as you play the hole. This week we are aerating green collars and approaches.

Fall is the best time to apply post emergent herbicides. The warm soil temperatures and cooler daytime temperatures improves efficacy. I applied herbicides to our green complexes and tee slopes. This should reduce the amount of broad-leaf and annual weeds next season.

I finally received word from ACSP for golf that we have successfully completed the program. The last part of certification requires a representative of ACSP to make a site visit and attest to our environmental stewardship. Id like to thank White Memorial Foundation, Local Boy Scout Troop, Fran Devlin and Vince McDermott for all their hard work in helping to reach our goals.

We had a back to back light frosts last week and we can expect frost in the future. Calm nites in the mid to low 30s will result in frost and play being suspended until 930 or 10 am. Please plan accordingly.

Hope everyone is enjoying this indian summer. Hope to see you out in the fairways!