Very interesting....

Take a look at this picture  -  look at the straight line at 100 yards across the fairway on #2

We have not done any mowing, fertilizing, spraying, or any maintenance on the fairways since November of last year.  This has to be from a fungicide application for snow mold disease that we did around thanksgiving last fall.  Some fungicides have growth regulator effects on the turf, which I like, and we apply these fungicides to certain areas on our fairways that we have mapped over the years as highly susceptible areas.   The turf absorbed the fungicide last fall, sat dormant all winter, and now the rest of the fairway is coming out of dormancy and greening up, but this area is slowed to green-up and come out of dormancy because of the regulator effect.  I have not seen this before, but then this year has been different than most past winters.

Winter pics

Some great pictures of the course this morning after the small snowfall last night.  Shows the soil temps of sand based areas (greeens) is warmer than the soil based areas.

Snow - melt

Just like the rest of the country, this winter has been one of our snowiest and coldest in many years. We normally can play golf all year around here in the banana belt of northern ID, but this year we have been closed 42 days since Nov 1.

Recently we had 3" on last Thursday night, 3" on Friday night, and 4" on Saturday night.

Much needed moisture as the golf course was starting to get dry due to our dry fall and lack of rain

Expecting to be closed for another week or so was the feeling at the beginning of the week, then we got another interest phenomenon that happens around here and a warm chinook wind blew in from the south on Monday, coupled with a few small rain events and the course turned to complete slush and all the snow melted in 24 hours.

We kept a very close eye on the greens to see if we needed to squeegee and remove water from the greens as the snow was melting to prevent any water/slush from standing on the greens overnight and freezing, causing damage to the turf.  Things are very sensitive when you have free water sitting on the green.  Crown hydration, which is when the plant absorbs free water, the water expands when it freezes, and leads to rupturing of the cell wall.  This can happen in one night and could kill the plant if it froze that night.  Fortunately our night time temperatures have stayed above freezing so our turf is doing well.
The next day brought lots of water sitting on frozen ground due to the single digit lows and hi's near 15 that we had for 4 days prior to the snow storms.  This frozen ground prevented the water from soaking in.

The last two days have been above 50, which pulled the frost out of the ground allowing the water to soak in and drain off.  The course is now open again and playing well.

The Thaw

What a streak of weather we have had the last 6 weeks.  Due to the tight grasp mother nature has had on us it has been very difficult to get the golf course open.  It started with a few small snow showers, then cold weather for an extended period that froze the ground.  A period of freeze and thaw cycles that drove the frost about 12 inches deep, which I have never seen that deep here.  These cycles caused the small amount of snow to turn into an ice layer sitting on frozen ground.  Due to the frozen sub-surface we only were getting melt from the sun and air temperature, compared to getting melt from both sides if the ground was not frozen.  Couple that with our location up against a bluff and the current sun angle of December lead to only a few short hours of sun each day

First snowfall at the beginning of December

The freeze thaw cycles led to this ice layer on many greens

Typically here in the Lewis and Clark Valley we are gifted with great winter weather, i.e. banana belt, that allows us to play golf all winter long.

As far as the turf health goes there were no major issues or concerns.  The ice layer that was on greens was short lived enough that we did not have any turf damage.  The weather did force the turf to be more dormant and off color than I have ever seen here.  Typically we maintain a little green color throughout the winter, but not this year.  Ice is very dangerous and a major concern, especially with our Poa Annua greens, and there are many different types of winter damage and turf loss to greens.  With ice, Poa can survive about 60 days under ice cover where creeping bentgrass can survive about 120 days.  Another concern, and a more practical one for us, is crown hydration.  When the snow/ice turns to water it can be absorbed by the plant if it is not 100% dormant and then the cold nightly temperatures will force the absorbed water to freeze and rupture the cell walls in as short of a period as 1 night. These freeze thaw cycles, standing water, and cold nightly temps can be devastating, so our maintenance staff would keep a daily eye on the greens each day and squeegee off any standing water that melted that day before it froze that night.

The snow and ice covered course also allowed our maintenance team time to refurbish many of our golf course accessories that we use during the season.

Ballwashers being sanded down and re-painted

We also were able to continue all of our annual tree maintenance work and removal with the golf course being snow covered and frozen.

We did finally have all the snow and ice melt and were able to re-open the course.  But then the problem we run into is the frozen ground, which I do open the course when it is frozen, plays very hard and fast. Followed by a couple small rain events and a night or two where the low temperature stays above freezing allows the top inch or two to thaw out and makes for conditions that require cart restrictions.   When the top inch is thawed and the ground below is frozen, then a small rain has no place to go and it sits on the surface making things very soft and squishy.   Leading to a couple days of limited cart traffic due to the ground below still being frozen.  Just a summary of some of the challenges and cycles with a northern golf course that has the opportunity to stay open all year around.

Now we are through all of those tough times and the course is fully open again, in good shape, playing well, and the forecast has most days hovering around 50 for the next couple weeks with only a few possible frost delays.  We will be getting back on a schedule of rolling greens this week, rotating pins with our 3 cup system, and other maintenance tasks.

Come out and play at LGCC
See ya on the course

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

First snow

We received our first measurable snow last night.  Even though it is only a couple inches, the forecast does not have us above 30 degrees for the next 8 days. Based on that, I see the golf course closed for a few days.

Fortunately everything on the golf course is ready for winter as we took advantage of the warmer un-frozen soil yesterday and finished up winter course set-up, spraying for snow mold disease, and getting the turf ready for winter.

The ground is not frozen yet so today we are buttoning up the last small project that was "open" on the course.

Drainage project along #5 green