The Fourth

Today we tackled the fourth green instead of the third, because it was easier to access. The process went smoothly. The snow depth was a little more than two feet and we had the green completely cleared in about 3.5 hours. The green looks great, plenty of sand left over from last fall.

If you have noticed the greens that already have been cleared are starting to lose their color, your mind is not playing tricks on you. After prolonged snow coverage, the turf does not experience the change in temperature and sunlight. The loss of color is the plants way of responding to all of the changes they are beginning to endure. The turf has not seen the light of day in 3 months which causes the greens to transition slowly through dormancy. At this point, the putting surfaces are still susceptible to any kind of traffic and frost stress during this transition period. They can be fragile until growth begins which is late April or early May depending on the weather.