Turf Talk With Tom Saunders

Tom Saunders

The weather has been very mild for late December and early January due to the position of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NOA).  Last year the NOA was sitting over Greenland and we were getting hammered with snow storms and frigid cold weather.  This year it is positioned farther South, so the clockwise circulation of the NOA is keeping the cold air and storms in Northern Canada. 

YEA !!!!!  The last thing the crew and I are looking for after working long hours all golf season is having to come in before dawn and on weekends to plow and shovel snow in the winter. Believe me we are very happy working a 40 hour work week.

Due to the temperate winter we have done some unusual maintenance on the course.  We hand mowed greens on the Banks course last week, we mowed 1 and 18 fairways on the Banks course also and we finished trimming all the sprinkler heads on both courses. 

Incredible!  Last year as you recall, we got snow cover by the middle of December and a blizzard the day after Christmas that dumped 18 inches on us.

The forecast for, January 6^th, is clear with a high around 48.  (Believe it or not we mowed the clubhouse lawns that day.)  Saturday, January 7^th, they are predicting a daytime high of 53.  Wow.  It sounds like a great day to break in those new sticks you received for Christmas.  We are going to try and cut new cup locations today if we can break through the frost layer in the ground.

When you are on the course check out the bunker renovations we completed on:

• 1 green left bunker
• 3 green back bunker
• 4 green both bunkers
• 5 tee bank
• 8 green left bunker and partial right bunker
• 11 fairway bunker and adjoining rough
• 16 green all 4 bunkers
• 18 green left bunker

We will continue with a few more bunker renovations in the early spring as soon as our supplier can resume cutting sod.  We also cut down some of the natural areas on the course.  We do leave some areas that you can see from the club until spring because I think it adds a little visual winter interest. We also left the large areas behind 2 green and right of 7 for our local wild life. 

Speaking of wildlife keep your eyes open when on the course to see our resident foxes, I saw 2 on the range tee this morning, which seem to be flourishing and our winter migrant raptors who have made FCC there winter residence.  I have seen Redtail Hawk, Sharpshin Hawk and Coopers Hawk so far. 

Unfortunately, we have our “not so welcome migrant Canada Geese as well”.  We will do our best to clean up their debris and harass them so they move on.

I look forward to sharing our experiences with you so check back as often as you can.

CONTACT INFO: Tom Saunders