Skating rink

Its been a few months since my last update and since we are halfway through the winter I thought it was appropriate to update what has transpired on the course.  So far this winter its been very cold with very little snow and lots of ice.  A thick layer of ice has formed on most of the greens.  Some of it has burned off in the last few days and I will continue to monitor the situation over the next few weeks before I plan a course of action.  I am hopeful that we will get another warm spell that will melt away the ice on the greens. 

The course did flood from the recent rain event.  At this time it doesn't look like an extraordinary amount of extra work but I wont really know until March when it melts away.  Pictured below is the ice that has accumulated adjacent to the 5th green.

 

The 2nd green pictured below has a very thick layer of ice and I am concerned about this since it did incur some turf damage during the winter of 2011. This green receives very little winter sun and will not burn off as quickly as some of the other greens. Typically turfgrass damage does not incur until there is 60 days of continuous ice coverage.   Its been about 2 weeks of continuous coverage so i will wait till mid February and then make a decision to remove the ice.

 

I have a meeting tomorrow with the new green chair and we will be discussing goals for this coming year regarding our involvement in Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for golf.  After looking over what we have accomplished thus far and what goals we can achieve this year I feel that we can  submit our documents to be an Audubon certified golf course.  It will take quite a bit of work this year to achieve this goal but feel confident we can meet the requirements. I am still looking for members who would like to contribute to reach this goal.  If you are interested then please contact me and we can discuss how you might be able to help us reach our goals.