It's tempting, but...

For those who live on the golf course, a blanket of snow (and perhaps a day off from school) may have everyone eyeing up the mounds, anxious to pull the sleds out.  However, there are several reasons why we ask that you refrain from this activity.

Basically these fall into two categories, the things that may be hazardous to you, and the things that may be hazardous to the golf course.  On the personal safety side, sledding on the course can be dangerous due to the possibility of encountering sticks, stumps, rocks, bunker rakes, sod staples, and steep drop-offs. 

As far as the golf course goes, sledding can compact snow, leading to ice formation and uneven thawing, as well as erosion of slopes, and the possible tearing of expensive turf covers.

So while it may feel as if there is a piece of cake placed right in front of you that you aren't allowed to eat, we suggest heading to the restaurant right down the road, where sledding is permitted:  Stokes Hill in Moorestown.

A Sharp Edge

 As most golfers know, walking or driving across frosted grass can cause some serious turf injury.  So, what does the crew work on when we have frost delays in the morning?

One of the projects we address is edging cart paths.  During the growing season, this task often gets shifted down the priority list.  While we don't have paths from tee to green, there are still 3.4 miles of paths to be edged.  And with two sides to a path, that's a lot of edging to be done!

The crew has done a great job on this project over the fall, and the end is in sight.

Happy Holidays!

Once again, members of the team celebrated the end of  an agronomically challenging year by relaxing and enjoying a meal together.  These individuals make you think of the old Army ad campaign:  "We do more before 9:00 A.M. than most people do all day."     

 Laurel Creek is fortunate to have such a devoted staff.  As we close out 2024, our focus is already on the 2025 golf season.  Happy Holidays to all!

Goodnight Greens

Once again, the team needed to pivot with the daily (sometimes hourly) changes in the weather.  This past week the greens were rolled, sprayed and fertilized.  

Cover installation began on Tuesday, which was followed by a very warm (but very wet) Wednesday, with 1.25" of rain.  The skies cleared on Thursday, however wind gusts in excess of 40 mph forced a pause in placing the covers.  The initial covering of #1-18 was finally completed on Friday.

One change from last year is that we will be leaving the Clubhouse putting green uncovered this winter.  This will allow members to continue to use the putting green (although on a bumpy surface).  Perhaps more importantly, leaving a green uncovered provides the best test plot for comparing the healing time to a covered green.

Throughout the year, we find the temperatures on the Clubhouse side of the bridge to be a bit warmer than on the open golf course.  Therefore, the uncovered Clubhouse putting green still may recover slightly more quickly than an uncovered  green would on the golf course.  

The Waiting Game

When we aerified the greens just prior to Thanksgiving, we weren't expecting several days of frigid temperatures to alter our plans.  As mentioned last week, there was still work to be done on the greens, prior to covering them.  Specifically, we needed to:

• Apply additional topdressing sand
• Broom the greens
• Roll the greens several times
• Apply fertilizer
• Apply fungicides and a plant growth regulator

With lots of fresh holes in the sand-based greens, temperatures can fluctuate much more quickly in the upper part of the rootzone than in the topsoil fairways.  The nighttime lows lead to frozen greens--not a good time to be putting heavy equipment on them.  Thus patience has been required.

Although the wind was quite oppressive on Thursday, the greens were thawed and we were able to complete the application of topdressing sand.  While we may be dodging rain drops this week, the temperatures should be good to complete the needed processes, and put the greens to bed for the winter.

If "A" is for aerification...

...then "I" is for inconsistent.  The late November greens aerification took place last week, and as always, we were at the mercy of Mother Nature.  Monday brought some blue skies and great conditions for the first step of the process, which involved applying sand topdressing and solid tine aerifying the greens.

However, conditions were dramatically different on Tuesday, when we had to deal with morning showers.  By the time the rain stopped, we had received 1/3", which was enough to make the second phase of the operation quite challenging.  

The aerifiers were fine under these damp conditions, but the cleanup crew had to be very careful when trying to remove the cores.  This is the first time we felt the need to place plywood in order to prevent damage from the core harvesters.  The moisture also caused the topdressing sand to "bridge," or cover the aerification holes without actually falling into them, and filling them up.

So while the aerification we performed was actually quite consistent, the ever-changing weather lead to varied conditions on the greens--some having many open holes and others appearing to need no additional sand.  

More rain on Thanksgiving helped to move some of the sand down into the holes.  We will be adding additional sand as needed this week, prior to covering the greens.

The finish line is in sight...

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past three months, you have heard about the drought we've been experiencing.  A quick look back at rainfall totals shows how little precipitation we received:  

• September--80% below average
• October--100% below average
• November--44% below average (as of 11/24)

Cumulatively, from September 1-October 31, we were 6.86" below average.

While we were able to survive this time by relying on the irrigation system, that just doesn't provide the uniformity that rainfall brings.  The other impact of this weather pattern has been the need to devote resources to hand watering.  Over 120 hours per week have gone into this task throughout the fall--a time when we would have preferred to be addressing other needed projects on the golf course.

It's been a minute since we had to empty the rain gauge.

Obviously the rain this past week was welcomed.  Historically, the end of November is when we prepare to winterize the irrigation system, and the possibility of needing to run sprinklers in December  would have been no fun.

While the recent rain will help to perk up the turf, we are at the time of year when growth slows down significantly.  It's unlikely that areas which were stressed and thinned throughout the year will now recover until next spring.