In Bloom

 Usually by this time of year, most plants are in bloom. This is a good shot of some lilacs, turf and aspen trees in the background near the pumphouse.

May was difficult, with the average high temperature at 53 with an average low at 28 degrees.

We received just over 2.5 inches of moisture with only 6 inches of snow, but the moisture was spread out over many days.

Tuesday we recorded soil temperatures and greens averaged out to 49 degrees. Rooting depth was 4-6 inches which isn't all that bad for poa coming out of dormancy. All disease activity from the winter is now inactive and plants are beginning to bloom. You can see the hillsides filling in with aspen buds. The willows around the course are showing signs of life, as well as the lilacs and dogwoods.

Even at 5 tee things are starting to pop. Today Judge Netting installed two of the seven posts to go into the ground for a new net. These are 12 inch diameter steel poles. This will be a polished enhancement to the old net that was installed in the past. The posts are buried 10 feet deep and will max out at 40 feet in the air. The first two holes we an easy dig, now they are getting into rock, which of course is no surprise. The project should be completed by the end of next week.

Springtime Rituals

Springtime. The Masters, the crack of the bat, freshly cut grass, mint juleps and sand bagging. Today was a very productive day. Many projects on hand which included sand bagging along some older bridges, moving around some greens covers and plenty of clean up. The greens covers are to help increase soil temperatures and promote growth. The greens covered are 1,5,8,10,12 and 15. They are being covered for various issues such as shade, snow mold recovery or colder micro climates.
Sand bagging will continue in a few areas along the creek to prevent further scour.

Erosion

The river has settled down a bit and some cooler weather has entered the valley. The creek peaked closer to 1200 cfs last night which seems like things are getting back to normal. These pictures are of eroding hillsides along 11 green and 14 tee box.

Plans are being made to stabilize these areas in the coming weeks and months to prevent this from happening again.

The front nine is expected to be open by Saturday with some slight temporary changes if the weather cooperates. Clean up efforts have begun and will continue into next week.

Nordic Remains

This is what we have seen happen around the course from the Nordic track. No worries, this is under warranty and is a minor fix. All that seems to have happened here is that the sprinkler head heaved out of place. No other damage yet, the head seems to work just fine. If this is not repaired properly, a mower will level it out nicely.

Overall the golf course came through the winter pretty good especially with the low snow depths. There are only a few irrigation heads that need to be repaired. Turf-wise, we have some slow spots on the 3rd, 5th and 18th.

Moving Out

It is nice to see some blue sky headed our way. Today we opened the back nine for play. The turf remains soft due to the heavy amounts of moisture we have had recently. Yesterday we measured over an inch of rain/snow fall over a 24 hour period.

No carts are available yet, but they should be rolling out soon, when things firm up. The staff and I were certainly excited today as the sun came up. We kept busy with lots of cleaning around the clubhouse and practice areas. Then we moved onto the course to clear away and debris and touch up the sand traps.

The course opened at noon and we expect a good number of people ready to start the season.

Make that 5

Five consecutive days now with new snow on the ground. The golf course is extremely soft and wet. The greens are too soft to have any sort of equipment on them, even a mower. We do plan to open sometime this weekend. The weather is looking better next week. First, the course must dry out to do almost anything. Cart path work will be delayed a little bit due to the moisture.

Be sure to check in here on this blog for more information on further course openings and happenings.

Four In A Row

We are on a streak. Four days in a row of snow cover upon arrival at the course in the morning. We should have a quick melt off, but the course is very soft. So we continue with clean up and training on certain items around the course. We can also focus on other details around the course such as signage and some of our landscape beds.
Mowing, brushing and topdressing will not be done today due to the amount of moisture. The course must dry out before completing these tasks efficiently.

A Cold Start

Today was certainly not one of the warmest or driest, but it was productive. The new tees on 4 & 8 were finished being shaped by Landscapes Unlimited and will be sodded tomorrow. We are using the old sod from those sites to put back on the sides of the tees.

The tee surfaces will be seeded with perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass. Within 2-3 weeks from being seeded and with some help from Mother Nature, they should be ready for play.

Most of the staff was in today as well and we began with many of the clean up efforts around the course. Our goals? To open the driving range this weekend and to have the back nine ready for play by the end of next week. We are all hoping for better weather to help the process.

Hello May

Welcome to the month of May in Vail. This picture was taken Sunday morning next to the 3rd green. The weather is looking favorable (at least right now) for the rest of the week for the course to melt off and then dry out before we are open for any kind of golf.

We have seven seasonal staff members beginning tomorrow. With the snow on the ground we can take care of some housekeeping items and address some entry level maintenance items around the course. This is exactly how I prefer the staff to start the season, properly educated and not rushed.

Getting on the Greens

With today's warmer weather we took advantage of getting to the turf. Since the greens have been cleared for a while, it was time to clean them up. Some of them have more growth than others, but they need a little bit of a spark to get going for the season. Clearing any debris will allow them to fully take in oxygen and sunlight to begin with growth.

Due to the cold front coming to the valley in the next few days we won't be mowing until next week.

Everybody is Aerifying!!!

Except us of course. As the golf course slowly melts off we are beginning to see more and more turf throughout the course and mostly healthy. It seems everyone that I have spoken to recently on the front range is aerifying greens and ready to get the season going.

This is the view from behind the first green (one of my favorites on the property). This green looks great. It is very soft in the front right portion of the green, which is no surprise. This area is the low point in the green and is very susceptible to traffic damage when it is this soft.
With the intense snow melt you may notice many areas with standing water in fairways and rough. With the river and the water table climbing it will be interesting to see how much, if any flooding were to exist this year.
I certainly do not expect to see much by mid-May with our snowfall, however we all know winter is not over in Vail. But sunny days still do appear and are welcomed.

Our aerification plan is similar to years past and should be less disruptive with a solid tine approach. We will accompany it with a scarifying technique that we have not done in a few years. This will require less disruption to the surface than core aerification but we will still be able to remove some thatch and continue help with dilution. It will also get us to quicker and better putting surfaces.

Don't be fooled, pulling cores is extremely important and is done in the spring on many courses. These courses have longer seasons than we do. Now that we have the thatch at a controlled level, we can begin to reduce the aggressive thatch attack in the spring and perform our main core aerification in the fall. Throughout the season we will continue with bi-weekly topdressing applications. We will also spike the greens periodically throughout the season to open the surface and allow gas exchange into the soil profile so the plants can breathe easier.
These practices are nothing new to VGC.