PUTTING GREENS

Today we were able to do a little surface clean up and roll on the greens. No the greens are not growing that much, the mowers just clipped the grass and leveled out any frost heave. The guys also fixed any ball marks that were missed by players the last week or so. The warm weather the next three days may  green them up a little.  You may notice if you play this weekend the tree cleanup  that started on #10. The removal of some dead and mis-shaped trees that provide to much shade to the green. This early prep is also required for space to remove the large dead oak beside the green.

COLD SATURDAY

Cold today 30 degrees, windchill 18, wind out north/north west at about 5 mph, overcast sky, and it's 10:00am. Not a great golf day but still better than snow and ice. We are putting the blue and gold tee markers back out this morning, after a new paint job.

GOLF COURSE / CLUB UPDATE

The course and greens have been frozen to some degree for the past 5 or 6 weeks. We have not been able to rake all the bunkers due to frozen sand,snow or ice. But Wednesday they thawed enough to rake along with topdressing range tees. The topdressing sand bin is in the shade, so we had to add heat from our portable heater to thaw it out. The blue and gold tees are missing from the course for painting, They will be back out by the weekend hopefully. We planning on doing white, green , and red tees next week. Temperature today is back down to 26 this morning, so frost delay is on.

PRO -SHOP
Check out the new carpet in the pro-shop. It's been a long time coming, looks great.

COURSE UPDATE MONDAY 1/17/2011

Members can walk after 11:00 today, greens have thawed out enough on front side to allow play. Back still has some snow cover and ice on #10 and 14 greens shade areas plus ice on cart paths. The back will take a few more days to thaw out, the rain Tuesday, if warm will help with this. Update on weed control around greens, we sprayed 1 Thur 10 green surrounds on Sunday since the greens were still thawing out. Hope to finish the rest of back side today if the wind will co-operate. We did some clean up of small brush behind #13 green last week, picked up some more leaves around areas not covered in snow. You may have noticed week of 1 /9 that clean up along #5 next to the river has start as well. This area as well as several others will be worked on over the winter. I hope to have a map up later in the week showing sites for projects.

WINTER WEED CONTROL

With the weather being like it has been the last month, we still have some winter weed control to take care of around greens and areas missed earlier by the fall application. Control seems to be good around tees, fairways and primary rough, but have noticed some spots around greens. If you combine weather, frost in the mornings and wind in the afternoon, the spray time is limited to only a few hours each day. We are using roundup in this application to remove any growing unwanted grasses and weeds from the dormant Bermuda turf. When we treat the Bermuda surrounding the greens, we must keep the side we are working on closed for the day. The ideal time is Mondays that we are closed, but the weather has to co-operate for that to happen. I told Daniel , we may have go with plan b later this month or early next month if the weather keeps us from doing this task on Mondays. The pro shop will be informed of our plan and we will send an e-mail out in advance of any possible course closing due to roundup applications, also it will be posted here as well.

WINTER GREENS PLAY

Yes we are closed again after last Monday and Tuesdays snow /ice event. The snow and ice are melting, but slowly due to colder temperatures and the ice over the snow cover. This weekend the temperature is suppose to reach almost 50 on Sunday. But the greens will take a little longer to thaw out. With bentgrass greens playing on frosted, frozen, or partially- thawed greens is a big dilemma, and often the most heated discussions! Golfers understand frost delays, but believe that playing on frozen greens does no damage. To a large extent, this is simply not the case unless the frost line is three to four inches deep and play is very light. Greens thawed out in the upper 1/4 to 1/2 inch are subject to the greatest degree of damage because, under traffic, the roots are shear off at the the frost line. Partially - thawed conditions usually occur in the Carolina's more this time of year then anywhere else in the country. So winter golfers here have to learn to be more tolerant to restrictions. To answer the next question often ask about why carts are restricted to the path more in winter. Wear injury on frozen dormant bermuda may be less acute. Bermuda can recovery relatively quickly from foliar damage during warm growing weather. However longer - lasting or permanent damage can be can be expected when traffic injures the crow or basal stem region where the plants regenerative tissues are located. this damage to the crown area occurs during during periods of thaw. when soft or saturated surface soils overlay frozen soils. winter traffic will thin the turf canopy in areas where traffic is concentrated or play is heavy. This damage can be noticeable well into spring and early summer. The soil is also impacted severely by winter traffic. Totally frozen soil is damaged the least. But wet or partially thawed soil over satured soil is most prone to damage from compaction and rutting effects. This effects not only drainage but the hard compacted soil will remain cooler in the spring(delay growth) and retain more heat in in summer. So cart restrictions are in use more in the winter then summer, due to other issues then just being wet from rain or snow.

COURSE OPENING TODAY

The warm rain last night has thawed the greens out . All the snow cover on the back side and ice on the cart path is gone. So the course is open to walking today and tommorrow after 10:00. When the pro shop opens back on tuesday the 4th, it will be carts on path for the remainer of week. We did end the year 2010 with almost 20 inches of snow here at the Glen.

Happy New Year

Yes we are back! A lot has happen in the past 6 month, ownership change, course projects, clubhouse improvements, weather, new dog, just to name a few things. We plan on updating at least weekly on what is happening going forward. The calendar has the new dates for maintenance items and member tournament schedules as planned.