Finally Some Rain

Finally received some much needed rain earlier this week.  Rainfall total from Sunday night into Monday morning was just over 1.3".  This was more rain than April and May combined!  May was the driest ever recorded, and April only gave us 1 storm of about 1" of rain.  

Overall from Sunday night through Wednesday morning we received 1.85" of rain.

Rain gauges have not been used much in 2015

Please Keep Carts Out of All Fescue Areas on the course

Overhead shot of 2 fairway

Recovery

6 days of recovery to 17 green.  17 is now open for play 

There has been a great deal of recovery the last few weeks at Rockville Links.  Many areas are growing out of the winter ugliness. Sometimes damage is just to the tip of the leaf blade and once growth starts it is removed after a few times cutting the grass. 

Recovery over 2 weeks to 10 green.  Some areas received cup plugs and sod this week after the picture.

Areas like 9,10 and 5 green are mixed with grass that grew out of winter damage and spots of winter kill.  Winter kill areas received more attention this week.  Some larger areas were sodded, and smaller dead spots were cup plugged.  Then after the greens were aerated and seeded with bent grass.

Hopefully these cold nights will go away and all the seed put into these greens the last few weeks will germinate soon.  Covers will remain on 5, 9, 10 &16 green to help germination, and fresh sod to root.

Before, during, and after sod to 9 green. 

Repair & Restoration

It has been another very busy week at Rockville Links.  The crew is still working very hard to get the course clean.  The Links is usually prepped for the season in March, but with this long winter there is still work.  Most years we are full staff the week of St. Patrick's  Day, but this was only the second week with everyone back to work.  

Filling new bunkers with sand.

Most years the only focus is cleaning the course, but this year we also have to finish up the Restoration.  Everything is moving along very well.  If the weather cooperates, everything turf related will be finished up on these holes next week. There will still be some irrigation additions to finish up.  Then, it is just getting the turf to mature enough for daily play.  The plan is to have the newly restored holes ready for Opening Shotgun.

Winter Damage on 17 green.  Area has improved a lot over the last 2 weeks.  This area received the extra aeration and seeding. Please stay off these areas to speed recovery.

Winter injury has been getting better in many areas.  Areas still showing damage were aerated again pulling plugs followed by a solid seeding tine that does not pull a plug.  A mixture of bentgrass seed was then applied with soil amendments and fertilizer.  Many areas have shown more recovery in the last few weeks, but some areas will require us to plug out bad/dead turf and replace with plugs from the nursery established last year.

9, 5, and 10 still have the worst injury and remain covered to help recovery and seed to germinate.    There are isolated spots on many greens that look like the picture above.  Please treat these spots as ground under repair and keep foot traffic off as much as possible.  Less traffic and stress will help these areas heal quicker.

Pressurizing and testing the irrigation system.  So far only a few expected issues. 

The weather was great this week, and the weekend looks amazing.  Higher temps, plenty of sunshine, and high winds over  the last week have finally dried the course out.  

Over the next few weeks, you will see some irrigation running during the day.  This is to make sure there are no major issues and the system is working properly before full overnight irrigation cycles.    

Aeration and Restoration

10, 9, and 5 are the greens with the most winter damage. 

The whole crew came back to work this week.  Aeration was scheduled for the week, but once again the weather has been tricky.  Newly renovated greens (2, 3, and 16) were all aerated along with greens that were damaged from winter.  Damaged areas were then seeded, and all greens were sprayed with fertilizer to help them grow out of damage.  

I believe the greens will grow out of most damage, but we are still waiting on growth to start.  The forecast looks great this weekend and all next week!  The turf should catch up quickly with the right conditions. 

Crew adding , compacting, and checking depths of sand in newly Restored bunkers.

Most of the focus this week was to finish up Restoration.  The crew has been working hard finish off drainage in bunkers so sand could be added.  New sod laid in the fall on greens and fairways all took aeration very well. This is important for establishment and also for smoothing the new playing surfaces. 

Fairways were aerated today.  An outside company comes in to pull the cores, Rockville Links staff cleans up.  Cleanup is always 2 day process, with the poor weather it is taking some extra effort to keep pace.  Today we will clean and sweep up as many cores a possible.  Friday fairways will be cleaned a second time. Also,  irrigation heads/yardage markers will be cleaned and trimmed,  then all divots will be filled. 

Why Cover Greens?

16 and 2 greens have now been covered for close to 2 weeks.  These two greens were covered because of all the new sod laid during restoration and expansions last fall.   The covers were put on to help the sod root better with the slow start to spring this year.  

Covers insulate and keep heat underneath just like using a blanket.  This helps to keep the soil and plant warmer during cold nights.  

The covers are helping.  After checking under them Monday afternoon the turf is starting to wake up and grow out of some winter damage.  Surface and Soil temperatures are also higher than greens without covers

Winter damage to the surface of  9 green

The decision was made Tuesday afternoon to cover greens 5, 9, and 10.  These three greens have the largest amount of winter damage.  The covers will help the soil temps warm up quicker over the next week, and hopefully we see new growth coming through in damaged areas. 

With the slow start to spring this year, there needs to be some growth before we put traffic and added stress on playing surfaces.  Each green will be handled different this spring.  Hopefully the weather cooperates and there are some warmer night time temps soon!

Spring Golf Update

Since the last update on spring golf, Rockville Links recieved 4" of snow on Friday, the first day of Spring.  Temps reached the 60's on Saturday then quickly dropped back below freezing at night.  These drastic swings in weather have ugly'd up more turf throughout the course.  Most still seems to be superficial damage, but the full extent of damage will not be know until the turf actually begins to grow.  

#9 green did not have the visual damage last week prior to the crazy weather swings

Hopefully with the warm weather and rain Rockville is receiving today will help to wake things up.  Friday and Saturday again have a high of 38 and a chance of snow.  After Saturday the long term looks Good! 50's during the day and 30's at night.  This means there will probably be some heavy frosts each morning, but hopefully it will stay above freezing so the grass will start to grow. 

 Active growing grass can take traffic and recover.  This is what we look for before opening greens and allowing carts.  

Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate this next week and we can begin the 2015 Golf Season.

We still have to be careful when to allow traffic on grass.  The picture above is damage caused by someone walking their dog down 1,2, and 3 on a late afternoon in December last year.  This is the reason behind frost delays.  Also when temps drop below freezing it also can freeze the grass blade making it susceptible to damage.

The blog will be updated every time there is a change.  So keep checking back.

Getting ready for Spring to Arrive

2 Green March 17th
Low area in the middle of green severely stressed after this harsh winter.
Desprite being stressed this turf should grow out once weather allows for growth

Finally, it is starting to look like spring at Rockville Links.  Snow and ice only remain in a few pockets throughout the course allowing us to finally get out see The Links.  Although, there are many patches that look beaten up from the harsh winter, I have not seen any areas where we suffered any WinterKill.  Deciding to clear greens to accelerate the ice melt really helped relieve stress from many struggling areas.  (This Process is further details in the previous March 9 blog post)

So what does this mean for the membership of Rockville Links?

The Links needs to continue to dry out and firm up.  Besides walking the crew is not able to get off the main roads and paths.  Hopefully later in the week we are able to venture off road. There is plenty to clean throughout the course, especially from all the geese activity the last 10 days.  

Once we do dry out we still have to keep traffic off areas that were severely stressed this winter.  I would like to see growth and recovery before we add any more stress.  

This same idea applies to greens.  Our greens will be the first turf ready for play this spring.  This is because of internal drainage, better sandier soils, and fewer shade issues than other playing surfaces.  Our greens are also predominately Poa Annua, which is a grass that comes out of dormancy quicker and is better suited for spring conditions than other grasses. 

The 7-Day forecast has every night dropping below freezing and a chance of snow Friday.  Coming into this week I would say we are 10 days behind last season, which had first round of golf played in late March.  Once we get through this next wave of cold weather, we should have a better idea how the season is shaping up.    

The course has come a long way in one week.  Hopefully we dry out, and the weather catches up to spring in the next week!

10 green March 10th/March 17th
Low areas accumulated ice first and held on longer adding extra stress to the turf

Spring?

Overhead view Friday March 6th

This Winter has been very unique.  The first 2 weeks of November was amazing weather, followed by some record lows to finish out the month.  December was beautiful and there was golf played right through New Years Eve.  January was pretty normal, but did begin forming ice layers on playing surfaces.  The end of January also brought a very impressive storm that left 18" on Rockville Links. This snow helped to insulate the original ice layer that formed.  February was the coldest ever recorded in  NYC and Long Island. 

All this weather set up the crazy first week of March.  Two separate rain storms followed immediately by snow and freezing temps in the same week.    

Huge puddle formed on #10 Green on Wednesday March, 4 during the heavy rain storm.  This was followed by 8" snow and temps dropping to 12 degrees.

All this weather formed 3-5" of ice on playing surfaces.  Some greens have been under ice cover for 35-40 days.  So the decision was made Friday March 6 to clear snow off greens to expose the ice.  

Two potential issues led to this decision.  First, ice cover for an extended period of time traps bad gases in the soil that can led to turf loss.  Second, the long term forecast called for a freeze thaw pattern all week, and saturated turf the freezes quickly causes crown hydration.  

Luckily the weather turned out better than predicted this weekend, and now is not going to drop below freezing till late in the week.   The thick ice layers have begun to melt, and we are doing everything we can to help water move from the surface.  In the next few days some frost should lift from the the ground and the Internal Drainage installed in the greens the last few years will really help out!

Using a snow blower to expose thick ice layer on #7 Green

Most greens had 3" of ice with 14-18" of snow on top of the ice

Some greens had 4"+ of ice and close to 3' of snow in spots.  So we had to use larger equipment to clear these greens.

Applied pigments and dark colored amendments to help melt ice.