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