Course Conditions

Just as we thought the snow was done for awhile, another 4-6 inches of drifting snow fell on Thursday and Friday.  Once the Club house and maintenance areas were plowed out, we exposed all of the greens trenches.  (photo's of the trench on #11 green). There is currently about 12 inches of snow on the greens.  The only ice that had formed under the snow on the greens surface was a small area on #7 green.

Course Hardware

The maintenance staff has been working on refurbishing all of the course hardware through the winter months. Tee markers (Top left) are sanded then dipped with an epoxy clear coat. Bunker rakes (Top right) are cleaned and clear coated.  Broken handles and worn down rake heads are replaced. Ball washers (Bottom left) are taken apart and painted. 

Golf Industry Show

      Fritz and Ryan attended the GCSAA Educational Conference and Golf Industry show in Orlando, February 7-11, 2011.  The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America conference offers numerous amounts of seminars, a trade show and networking experiences at this event.  The golf course show attracts people from all over the globe, and provides education specific to golf course management.
      Ryan attended seminars on the co-existence of trees and turf on golf courses, using Power Point as a presentation tool, and the Assistant Superintendent's general session in preparing their way for the future.
      The trade show had huge range of exhibitors presenting products from all facets of golf course maintenance and management.  This was a great opportunity to ask vendors, engineers and fellow superintendents about new products, solutions to our current equipment and turf problems, and ideas how to implement their use at Forest Lake.
      

Club House Roof Drain

The melt water off the roof flows down a drain in the wall of the men's locker room then out Club Drive.  Through the year we keep an eye on the drain being restricted from soil wood chips and other debris.  During colder temperatures the drain water freezes as it makes it's way on a gradual pitch from the club house to the road.  When this drainage system backs up or freezes there is potential for water to leak into the men's locker room area.  This picture was taken the second week of February.  The discharge pipe was removed and thawed and salt was used to melt the remaining ice.

Course Conditions

On Saturday February 19th most of the snow we had accumulated melted away exposing the turf.  The greens and golf course have over wintered well to this point.  There was no significant signs of disease or damage to turf.  On Sunday February 20th we experienced a 12" snowfall to cover the course once again.  With a warm 10 day forecast in the 30's we expect to have significant melting. We will continue to monitor ice build up on the greens and remove the snow out of the greens drainage trenches to help out with the melt water movement.

Winter Maintenance

There was a significant snowfall that fell on February 1st to February 2nd.  Approximately 8-10" of snow with substantial drifting.  The maintenance crew worked for 2 days to remove the snow. Snow was removed from the south maintenance building roof to eliminate weight (Photo).

Snow on the greens are substantial 12-16" in most areas on them.  The snow on the greens is acting as a good insulater, and ice accumulations at the the greens surface is minimal.  The drainage trenches will have the snow removed but the greens will be left alone with snow cover.