Winter Update: Feb 28th
- Michael Curtin
- Feb 28
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 1
The snow and cold have continued here at Ipswich since our last blog post. Thankfully the temperatures are largely trending upwards moving forward. While still snow covered, the course has experienced a significant amount of snow melt over the last week. We have an average of 8 inches left on the course as of 2/28. The cart paths are still unpassable for most of our utility carts, but we have been able to get out and do some work on the course recently.
Over the last month, heavy winds caused two pines along the right side of the ninth hole to snap and fall. Both of these trees fell out of the woods and partially landed in the rough. These trees have been cut up with the brush/limbs stacked to be chipped and the logs cut to length to be hauled away when weather allows. While we were in the area the crew also took the opportunity to clear out some miscellaneous brush. Additionally a fairly good sized dead tree on the left of 8 was taken down while we had snow and frost still in the ground.
The pond edge between the 9th and 18th holes was also cleared while the pond was ice covered. Similarly, we took the opportunity on the 5th pond to remove portions of a few pine trees that had partially fallen into the pond over the last few years.
The crew has also continued to be busy working around the shop on various course accessories and shop work. Over a 100 new boundary/hazard stakes have been painted to replace damaged/missing ones around the course. Juan and Marcelo are in the process of refurbishing the ball washers with a new coat of paint, pair of towels, and replacing any necessary parts.
While weather kept us largely inside spray tech Jim Kindler took the opportunity to clean and repaint a few pieces of our equipment that were rusting. Jim also just recently finished the Umass Amherst Winter Turf Management certification program. This is an intensive program he completed over the last two months while also continuing to work. We'd like to congratulate Jim on earning his turf management certificate.
The irrigation bench was also cleared out and reorganized. Multiple cart loads of assorted clutter, broken parts, and obsolete parts were discarded. Being able to see the surface of the bench and easily see what's on the shelves will be a nice change of pace this coming season.
Capital Requests:
We are waiting on approval for replacement turf mats for the driving range. The old mats have become visibly worn and battered. If approved we hope to have the new mats installed as soon as possible for the coming 2025 golf season. We will be going with a fiberbuilt mat which should be a nice improvement over the turf hound mats that were in place.
Our yearly request for funds to contract out irrigation repairs has also been submitted. This has been done every spring since 2019 as we continue the replacement of the pipe saddles used during the system install with a better performing/durable part. These saddles are the main source of our irrigation leaks. We will likely be replacing another 50-75 saddles this spring through contract work in addition to a few dozen more during the season by our irrigation tech Marcelo.
Spring Projects:
In the spring we will be finishing the sod work adjacent to the 1st tee. Work had begun on this area towards the end of last year and will be continued when weather and material allows.
The 8th white tee is also scheduled to be rebuilt this spring. The tee itself will be leveled and enlarged by roughly 25% with work also being done to the rough on either side of the tee. This work will address the poor conditions of the walk on area for the tee that is currently mostly exposed dirt, rock, and tree roots.
Other Upcoming Work:
Replacement of drain covers when conditions allow
Continued beautification work behind the 4th green where ornamental beds were removed
Finish plumping in the pipe for the new well near the 6th tee to the irrigation pond on 5
Chipping of various brush piles staged around course after snow melts
Grinding of stumps from winter tree work by contractor also when conditions allow
A Note From Matt:
A number of courses started clearing snow and ice off of greens this week. A few members have asked "why are we not clearing greens"? First and foremost we are managing bentgrass greens and everything we do is to encourage bentgrass and limit poa annua. Bentgrass can survive 75 to 90 days under ice cover and most use the 90 day period as the date of concern. Ipswich greens have only had ice cover for approximately 30 days, well within the threshold for bentgrass survival. We will obviously be snow free by the time 90 days occur.
Poa annua starts to succumb to ice damage at 45 days with 60 days the area of concern. Courses clearing greens now are managing poa annua. Even then I think the physical snow and ice removal is premature at this point and possibly subjecting the turf to self inflicted injury.
Ice conditions will continue to be monitored until we are ice free. Right now the best course of action is to do nothing at all and let the natural melting process occur. The melting process thus far has been a good one and conditions next week also look good mid week.
As always the agronomy team will do what is best for Ipswich and clearing greens at this time is not the right course of action.