Well our first freeze is finally over, but as you know it's early. Winter, officially called the Winter Solstice, doesn't start until December 21st. As of this writing we are not seeing much damage from the very cold temperatures we experienced for almost 10 days. Just some discoloration here and there. We'll know more as we come out of the thawing phase. We did develop a disease called Fairy Ring prior to the freeze on #18 green and the small chipping green. There are over 52 different kinds of Fairy Ring. This particular one is very noticeable in just the middle and towards the back of #18 green.While we don't anticipate any turf loss it makes for a rather odd look, which left unchecked could cause some problems. The Fairy Ring you may be familiar with is usually a large circular dark green ring with mushrooms growing from it. Generally this is caused from decaying organic matter.
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| Fairy Ring |
This can be controlled by a fungicide, which we will be applying once the greens have thawed out. We're not sure why only #18 and the small putting chipping green were affected. Hopefully it is contained to just these greens as we have not seen any other greens with the disease.
Over the past several days the maintenance crew has been busy clearing out some areas on #5 of salal bushes. Areas to the right and left out about 200 yrds from the tee have received some needed removal to help pace of play. Generally in these areas, finding an errant tee shot could take a while. Additionally, we have removed the two large trees to the left of #5 green. These two trees where causing some significant problems with sunlight to the green and also contributing to some turf decline in and around the front left of the green. With the added drainage in this area and some new sod on the way this area will be in much better shape to play from. We've sanded the area quite heavily so we've marked it as "ground under repair".
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| #5 drainage |
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| #5 left of green |
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| #5 tree removal |
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We've also removed a significant amount of salal and under brush to the left of #5 green. This area will now be a playable spot if a golf ball kicks left of the bunker.
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| Left of #5 green |
As a result, we expect to see more sunlight to the green and it will also allow golfers to find their golf ball should it enter this area.
