January gave us snow, rain, thunderstorms, seasonably warm and brutally cold weather. Toward the end of the month ice started to build up on Ridgeway's putting surfaces leaving anywhere from no ice to 1/2" covering the playing surfaces. However, since the end of January we have had more rain, snow, warm and cold weather. This has added to the thickness of our ice to 3" in some areas. Earlier this week we made the decision to remove snow from our putting surfaces to minimize ice buildup. This will allow what ice that is currently there to melt much quicker once it starts to warm-up. It’s hard to imagine but spring is just around the corner. . .
Some of you may ask, "What damage has the ice caused to the greens?" Answer: Little if any at this point because the ice cover has not been present long enough. The snow removal was done to stop or slow the buildup of more ice making it easier to melt off completely. 2012 saw a large influx in the amount of bentgrass and that will help greatly. Bentgrass is a heartier turf than Poa annua and can withstand winter conditions better with little worry of any damage. This is why our management strategy has been to promote bentgrass so that we can rely on good hearty turf from the start of the golf year right to the end!
We look forward to an early spring in 2013. Cheers!
