Week of Feb. 16th

 

What a winter it has been.  From setting records for low temperatures to snow lasting for more than 20 days.  It has been a difficult winter to get winter work completed but the team is making the best of it. The team had a great week working on projects both inside and outside.

While the team has been waiting for the snow to melt they have been working on refurbishing all course accessories, organizing all shop areas to gain efficiencies and deep cleaning the shop areas.  

Also the team used the break on the course to continue shop improvements adding 3 shelving units to the lean-to area to increase our storage capacity.  

Working with BGE (and we all know how much fun that can be), we finally were able to have their tree contractor out to limb back the 5 trees close to the shop.  These trees were overhanging the power line leading to the maintenance area.  This should help reduce power outages at the shop.  

This week Julian, Tim and I spent Tuesday at the Mid-Atlantic Association of Golf Course Superintendents Education Seminar furthering our education and re-certifying our pesticide and fertilizer licenses.  

Once the course was deemed safe enough the team spent this week continuing our winter tree work, raising up some in-play trees and removing one very dangerous tree between holes 6 and 7.  This tree was in bad shape with tons of dead wood and 3 big splits at the base.  

I have had a lot of questions about how the snow and ice would affect the golf course.  It is always nice to have a blanket of snow on the turf protecting it from extremely windy and cold winters. However, the snow event was equal to just over an inch of liquid precipitation and we are still currently in a Severe Drought. We are 17+ inches behind in rainfall since 2024.  

Lastly, we will continue to monitor snow melt and try to have the course open ASAP. Once the snow melts and the turf conditions improve it will take the team some time to get the course cleaned up from all the winter wind storms, animal damage and make sure the course is safe.  Will we continue to update the golf shop with changes.   

Thank you for reading.