March 2019 — Course Conditions Update
April 1,
This past week, Director of Agronomy Brandon Arens was able to give us the full lay of the land on our property coming out of the winter.
Things are really looking good and the turf looks healthy.
View all of the photos of the property.
On March 19, we officially started spraying the mulch off the greens for the year. It will take our team about a month to clean the greens on the entire property. This means we’re hoping to have all of the greens clean by April 12, 2019 (Masters weekend).
The team started in the corner of the property, cleaning off the Pines greens first and will systematically work their way across the property, finishing off with some of the exposed holes on the far end of our Dunes course.
After the greens are cleared, we’ll start aerifying all of the greens. This is when the greens will really start to come to life as we get oxygen to the roots for the first time since October.
As of last week, soil temperatures were in the low 40s. Once they hit 50 degrees, we’ll really start to see things green up.
Depending on the upcoming forecast, we expect soil temps to hit 50 in the next few weeks. We’re keeping a tight eye of the forecast over the next 30 days to make sure we avoid cold snaps without moisture.
So far so good.
There are various areas throughout the property where we have substantial water, but as the ground continues to warm and thaw, the water will absorb into the terrain just fine.
Over the offseason, we were approved for a team of H2B workers who will be a massive support in 2019. The H2B maintenance team shows up here in early April, so we’ll be focused on clearing greens, aerifying, and ridding the property of pine needles and pine cones.
We won’t be fertilizing this spring since we fertilized in the fall, so we expect the courses to come to life rather quickly.
Opening Day is right around the corner!
