Course Update

I hope everybody had a good holiday season and happy new year.  I know most of you are very eager to get back on the golf course so I wanted to give you an explanation and update of what is happening on the course.  Typically we are grazed with very mild winters and minimal snowfall, thus allowing us to play golf throughout the winter, but this year things have been a little different.  A couple snow storms followed by ice layers coupled with with very cool, foggy, and cloudy weather has had the golf course closed all but 5 days in December.

Our location is unique as we are the only golf course that is positioned up against the bluff, and for this reason we still have 4 greens that have a significant amount of ice on them.  The lack of sunlight on these greens forces us to rely on air temperature to melt the ice, and these holes are also colder up against the bluff.  With only a few hours of warm weather each day, and the ice is sitting directly on top of frozen ground (ice) the melting process is very slow.

Here are pictures from #14 and #2 this morning, January 2,  at 7:30 AM.

#14 green - Jan 2

I understand it is difficult when you drive around and all the holes you see from the road are clear.  I will open the course with ice on fairways or rough and completely frozen ground, but when the greens surface is covered in ice we are asking for major issues and potentially dead greens if we allow anybody to walk on them.  

We have been trying to scrape the ice off every day in the late afternoon but it is still frozen to the leaf tissue and will kill the plants if we “strip” it off.  Any mechanical means of removal on the greens surface will typically damage and kill the plant in this vulnerable state.

We also have talked a lot about opening up a partial golf course, but the idea is that all it takes is one group to play a closed hole and walk on the green and then we will be closing the green for 4-6 weeks in March and April to re-seed it and grow it back in.  Is 20-30 rounds on a December day when the hi is 38, worth $10,000 and closing a green or two for 6 weeks in the spring?

Majority of our cups look like this

On the positive side, the forecast has light rain and wind for this evening and tomorrow.  The warm breeze will be our ticket to get the ice to loosen up so we can open the course in the next day or two.  Please hang in there and we will get the course open as soon as mother nature allows us to.

We are making improvements and hope to have the course open soon, as here are pictures taken of 1 week ago of 2 green, 5 green and 14 green.

#2 green 1 week ago