Closures and temporary greens

In total in the past 48 hours we've received approximately 4.3 inches (2.2 Monday night and 2.1 Tuesday night) and that's not including the 1-2 inches of snow that melted from the weekend. With the recent large volumes of precipitation and the lack of subsurface drainage the course is literally saturated.

When it comes to the greens, they are our bread and butter so to speak. We must ensure we are not doing any long-term detriment to them by opening them prematurely after such torrential rains. If we open saturated greens the foot traffic alone will cause substantial compaction. This compaction will weaken the turf and if left uninterrupted we will begin to lose turf in areas. Most of the greens drain fairly quickly, while we have a couple of poorly draining greens such as 3, 10 and 12 that take a substantially longer time to drain. Cultural practices such as traditional aeration, deep tine aeration and addition of drainage will long-term help alleviate these issues. In the short-term, we appreciate your cooperation in playing to temporary greens and when moving onto the next hole, please avoid walking on the closed green.

The 8th hole today was completely closed due to the soil being completely saturated. Long-term we all understand drainage is an important part of correcting this issue along with core aeration and topdressing. In the mean time we are working on creating a pad with a mat and pathway leading to it for winter play. The hole will play approximately 130 yards to the center of the green. We ask all golfers remain on the path on this hole and try and keep off the saturated fairway for the same reasons as I spoke of above on the greens. Walking on saturated turf compacts the soil and weakens the turf. So again, we appreciate everyone's cooperation, please keep on the path, hit from the mat and return to the path until you get to the green site.

Thank you,

Brett Finlayson
Golf Course Superintendent

Hole closures - why?

Recently we've had a bit of a cold snap causing some lengthy frost delays. On more than 1 occasion  the frost was so severe that certain areas of the course never saw the frost lift. An example of an area where this may occur is the 7th hole. With the tall trees on the south side of the hole, blocking out sun, the frost can remain present all day. In a case such as this, the grounds team will post signage signifying the entire hole will be closed. The sole reason for this is turf health. We all understand that walking on a frosty green is detrimental to the turf, the same goes for shortly mowed turf such as approaches, fairways and tees. Here is a quote from my last update; "Turf is made up of 90% water and during periods of frost this water freezes in the cell causing the structure of the plant to be very brittle. If turf is walked on under these conditions the cell walls will shatter and can cause the plant much unneeded stress." By closing these few holes on the few days that frost remains present all day, we will have much healthier turf heading into the spring and arrive at peak conditions that much earlier. Our goal is to get every golfer out as soon as possible and playing as much golf on as many regular greens as possible. We just need to convince Mother Nature to cooperate.

Brett