2 Green

It's been a long winter, but as Tony mentioned this morning, "Today is the first day of summer". As the calendar begins to turn to March, it has been a ritual to begin clearing the greens at Vail Golf Club. People all over ask when we begin to see the poa putting surfaces.
Well today was the day. We were a little skeptical on what we would find, but to no real surprise, all is well.

To back up for a minute, about two weeks ago we began packing in trails to a few greens with our snow cat. This firms up the trail enough to drive the John Deere tractor to the green safely. The plow of the cat is used to push snow and get down to grass level. This way the snow blower can begin to blaze a trail through the green. After about four hours of chopping, blowing and shoveling we are left with this.

Pretty good for 160 total inches that have fallen on the golf course this winter. You are seeing some left over sand from fall topdressing and a few patches of some early stages of snow mold. The problem in turf with early snow falls, especially with poa annua greens, is that they don't have a chance to harden off for the winter.

When the plant does not have the opportunity to harden off and "prepare" for winter, the disease pressure is greater. This is just dealing with Mother Nature. However, we have 2 1/2 months before the golf season starts. A little sun and oxygen and these greens will be right back to their old self.