Will It Ever Warm Up?

This winter is officially ranked as the 7th coldest winter in the past 100 years for Cleveland.  Of course this had to come the year we decided to begin hosting the Cleveland Open, open the new clubhouse, and my first official year as Head Superintendent of LCC.  I certainly don't like breaking bad news to anyone, but I do feel I need to communicate to the membership of LCC what should be expected as the season gets closer.  In my previous post, I put up some photos of plugs taken from 3 different fairways on the course.  The worst being from 11 fairway mound.  That plug recovered well after being in our warm shop for 2 weeks.  I did the same thing with some plugs from greens I was concerned with, and results were not as good.  The difference being our fairways are nearly pure bentgrass, and our greens nearly all Poa annua.  I will post photos below of turf from our 14th green and the 16th green.  As the first "polar vortex" hit, a handful of our greens had some amount of exposed turf.  Exposed Poa to -12 not including windchill is a bad combination, and the turf has encountered these conditions multiple times this winter.

16 Green

 Being exposed to the north, 16 green had the most exposure to the elements this winter.  This plug has been in our shop for 2 weeks.  You can see how the Bentgrass recovered (the small patch of green turf), while the Poa did not.  There are however lots of Poa seeds germinating throughout this plug.

14 Green

This plug from 14 green was under snow cover all winter.  Snow forms a great natural insulation for the turf.   The link below is a good article posted by the USGA.
http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/northcentral/Don%E2%80%99t-Over-React-%E2%80%93-Time-To-Consider-All-Options---February-2014/

Just to give you a visual idea of this winters extreme temperatures, I posted some graphs below that show December, January, and February's temps.

December

January

February

 Our weather station data shows that the average temperature for both January and February was 13 degrees.  With temperatures reaching -12 in both months.  It has to be coming to an end here soon

2014 Winter Check-up

As all of you who stick around Cleveland through the winter know, it has been a tough one.  With the sub zero temperatures, melting, and freezing there becomes some concern for the condition of the turf.  The concerns are crown hydration for both Poa annua and bentgrass, and no gas exchange due to ice cover.  The health of the turf going into winter plays a big role in how long the turf can tolerate ice covered conditions.  We have only really had one thawing and freezing episode, so my concern for crown hydration is less than that of some ice coverage we have been monitoring.  Below are pictures of some plugs taken from around the course.  One from 11 fairway mounds, one from a low spot on 15 fairway, and one from the bottom of the hill on 17 fairway.  The mounds on 11 fairway have been exposed to two sub-zero stretches of weather.  The mounds become exposed by the wind and therefore don't have the protection of snow cover.  This damages the turf just like over exposure to freezing winds would damage a persons skin.  The good news is, the turf will usually recover from this quickly after a couple mowing's, and increased soil temperatures.  You will notice the wind damage I am talking about on the photo of the plug from 11 fairway.  The good news is, the plug from 15 that was under ice looks great.  We will monitor these over the next couple of days to make sure we see growth.

11 Fairway Mound

Ice Covered portion of 15 Fairway

Bottom of Hill on 17 fairway

Removing Some Trees

As you all know, there are a lot of trees on the course that are dead, dying, or dangerous.  We had some of these trees removed recently, and were able to do it at minimal cost.  An Amish logging firm came out and did the work.  Any usable lumber was applied as a credit to our invoice.  They removed the trees that were too large for our crew and equipment to handle.  These trees were hallow, had less than 50% of the canopy alive, or were growing from a V close to the ground.  Trees with these flaws create danger for golfers and the course.  Below are some pictures of trees that were removed.

This Pin Oak was growing in a V formation, and had little support at the base.

This Oak had very little support at the base as you can see.