Stumbling Into Spring

Thank God May is over. We have done more today than most of May. Lots going on now that decent weather has arrived, call it crazy, but we are making improvements to the course everyday.
Areas are drying out, soil temperatures are increasing and most areas of turf have broken dormancy.
We are just getting around to mowing everything on the course and most areas are recovering well. The irrigation system has been fully pressurized and will certainly be a boost for turf conditions.
Plenty of projects going on outside of the basic day to day maintenance: re-surfacing of 3 cart path, new net installation at 5 tee, 7 tee re-build, Vail Valley Drive water mainline (water district), new bridges on 11 & 17. The only project completed is the lightning shelter near 11 green. There is some landscaping to complete in that area, which we plan to get to once the bridges are complete.

Today through Friday, we will be preparing the cart path tie-ins on 17. We are taking the opportunity to correct a few issues. By replacing all of the path from the bridge back to the tee we will be able to lower the path slightly, improve drainage aesthetics and turf conditions. Our asphalt contractor began this afternoon removing the old path. I found 6 plus inches of asphalt with some road base underneath. The old path was overlaid once and created some drainage issues on the sides of the paths. You can see how the path has failed over time with the large crack through the middle of the path.
Finally we had overnight temperatures in the low 40's last night which is rare for these parts in early June. Cloud cover tonight will lead to another warm night in the valley which will certainly help with turf conditions, yet speed up melting up in the hills. Only in Vail can you say 40 degree overnight temps are warm!