Old Man Winter Returns

#3 Green

It wouldn't be April in SW Michigan without a light dusting of snow and bone chilling temperatures once again. With near 70 degree temps for the last few days, this sure is a shock to us and the turf. 

#14 Approach & Green

The greens have a light layer of snow and ice crystals on them but they appear to have held up well last night when temperatures dropped to the low 20's. 

The weather forecast is looking positive this week and the cold, winter like weather will only last a few days before temperatures return back to normal levels. It sure was nice to see a bunch of members out enjoying the golf course, beautiful warm weather and the Masters Tournament this past weekend!

Fairways Get a Haircut

Today we mowed the fairways for the first time of the season and they look terrific! The fairways are in wonderful condition this spring and its nice to see they made it through the extremely harsh winter in top notch form. The weather this past week has been absolutely beautiful, allowing us to knock out a bunch of work and get the course pepped for spring golf. 

Today we also made our first foliar spray application to the greens and approaches. This spray application will provide the pants a bit of food to encourage spring green up, along with fungicide protection against a Pink Snow Mold infection with the cooler/wet conditions forecasted for next week. 

Spring Snow Mold Report

With the most extreme winter in 30 years behind us, its nice to finally see the grass again and signs of spring. This brutal winter season brought on some speculation as to the severity of the snow mold infection on the turf, after being covered in snow since November here in SW Michigan. I would say based on the amount of turf that's exposed so far, that the snow mold fungicide applications worked flawlessly! There are distinct lines along the edges of the fairways and tees where you can see the treated and untreated turf.

#17 Fairway

 The snow mold damage to the rough is pretty severe and its obvious there was increased disease pressure under the extended snow cover this season.

#14 Tee

These pictures above show perfect examples of where the edge of the sprayer boom was during the fall spray application. The rough on the right side is almost totally compromised from snow mold, the tee surface and bluegrass edge is green and perfectly healthy. This spring and these pictures provide a perfect example of just how important the fall snow mold application is and also making sure the course gets put to bed properly each and every year.