March 2024 Spring Greens Update
Many of you may know that golf courses in our region have faced challenges with the onset of spring. Our area, along with the entire province, experienced unusually high temperatures during the late fall and early winter months, leading to significant damage to our greens when unexpectedly cold weather hit. The extreme cold, especially with wind chill factors reaching -15, caused severe drying of our greens, which hadn't properly acclimatized to the cold due to the abrupt temperature drop. Typically, plants gradually accumulate sugars and harden in anticipation of winter, but the quick onset of cold prevented this natural process. Additionally, our greens are mainly composed of Poa Annua grass, which is less resilient compared to bentgrass greens.
Learn more about Poa and Bentgrass in our previous post!
In response, we initiated an early aeration process to stimulate root development, and the results over the past two and a half weeks have been impressive. The accompanying photos show the remarkable recovery over the last month: the first image depicts the 9th green on March 1st, and the second image shows the same green on March 25th. Our efforts have included overseeding with more resilient bentgrass, keeping the most affected greens closed to play, implementing specialized irrigation to support seed germination, and continuous monitoring. The recent rise in both day and night temperatures, coupled with some much-needed sunshine, has significantly aided our recovery efforts. While we've done our part, we're also grateful for the timely assistance from Mother Nature.
Given the current use of temporary greens on holes 1, 2, 7, 9, 15, and 16, we have decided to maintain our winter rates and delay the usual spring rate increases, which would have taken effect on March 1st and again on April 2nd, until the course conditions meet our high standards. We thank our members, players club, and loyal customers for their patience and understanding as we work hard to get our typical conditioned greens back on track. We know we will get there; it will just take some more time.
Post updated March 26, 2024.