Winter Injury Update

          We have posted pictures of the Old Course Greens that were taken on Thursday April 16th on the Blog.  The covers were put back on the greens Saturday evening and we anticipated removing them today but the extreme  wind is going to prohibit that.  We are continuing to plug the worst areas and have added more manpower to this operation.  We were able to sod three of the worst areas last week on holes 10,11,14.  We are continuing to get recover from most of these areas but the weather this week is not going to be helpful.  This weeks high temperatures are in the 50's with lows in the 30's.  That is not weather conducive for growth.

        The covers will remain on most of this week to help raise soil temperatures.  We do anticipate performing a small tine aerification process this week.  This will take the place of the aerification that normally takes place the first Monday in June.  We have decided to go ahead with this now rather than inconveniencing the membership once the greens have recovered.

         The warmer temperatures last week allowed the greens to begin to grow.  This was the first week this year we have had temperatures that will promote growth.  We are hoping to see these temperatures return towards the end of the week.  We will be reevaluating  the greens later in the week to determine when we can open more holes for play.

        The Falls is continuing to be cleaned up from the Winter.  Maintenance on the Falls was extremely limited following Labor Day in an attempt to reduce expenses.  We also delayed the call back on our maintenance staff until the 13th of April which is two weeks later than normal for budget reasons.  The combination of these two factors have delayed the clean-up of the Falls.  The rough on the Falls is being mowed today which will help cleanup the remaining leaves and debris on the property.

We are hoping to see some better weather next week and thank you for your patience during this time.

Thank you,

Gregory Boring,
Golf Course Superintendent

Blog Site: www.ccscrantongreen.blogspot.com

COURSE UPDATE

          The warm temperatures today is allowing us to get some much needed work done to prepare the course for Winter. We sprayed greens this morning and completed our Winter Topdressing Application this afternoon.  We are cutting some sod around the greens to try and divert water from running onto the putting surfaces during the Winter months.  We are installing 8" Sumps over the XGD Drainage pipe on the greens where water collects with hopes of being able to pump the water off the greens during a thaw.  This should keep water from sitting on the greens for any length of time.

        Our final mowing of the season took place over a month ago at 50% higher than our normal height of cut.  We increased the frequency and rate of a wetting agent that encourages water infiltration to aide in moving water through the green.  Please be assured we are doing everything that can possibly be done to promote good health of our putting surfaces for the Winter months.

       The forecast for later in the week is calling for a chance of significant snow.  Because of the potential storm we will be applying the covers on the Old Course greens tomorrow.  This will close the Old Course for the season but the Falls will be available, weather permitting.  I know there was a lot of discussion last Spring about the covers causing the damage to the greens.  Rest assured the covers played no role in the damage that we sustained on our greens.

Sumps were installed in the greens to help remove
water during the winter once the greens freeze.  We
will use electric pumps to remove water from greens.

Sod was stripped to help divert water from running onto the greens on #6, #10, and #18.

       The heavy sand topdressing helps to protect the crown of the plant and insulates the delicate Poa-Annua plants during the Winter Months.  Even with all these efforts we are putting into place we are still in the mercy of Mother Nature.  The best case scenario would for us to not to have to hear the words Polar Vortex the entire Winter.  We will be keeping a very close eye on the greens this Winter.  During periods of snow cover we will be monitoring the greens for any ice accumulation.  If the greens are snow covered and a thaw is expected we will begin removing snow off the greens.  This will keep the snow from melting on the greens and refreezing.

We will keep you posted of our precautionary maintenance practices throughout the Winter months.

Thank you and have a nice holiday,

Gregory Boring,
Golf Course Superintendent

Tee Project

The tees will be sodded over the next two days. The contractor who is leveling the tees will be finished this morning. 20 pallets of sod arrived this morning and we expect another 20 tomorrow.

TEE WORK

          Today the Green Department began a Tee Leveling Project that we hope to complete by the end of next week.  We have identified several tee boxes throughout the property in need of leveling and we began the process of stripping the sod today.  A contractor will be in here next Tuesday for a few days to perform the actually leveling process but the Green Department will be performing most of the prep and sod work. These tees will be sodded with new sod and will be closed for a few weeks next Spring.

       We will also begin replacing the cart paths on holes 2 and 15 next week.  These paths have deteriorated in recent years and are in dire need of replacement.  We expect this work to begin on Monday.


Thank you,

Gregory Boring,
Golf Course Superintendent

COURSE UPDATE

           With temperatures in the upper 70's earlier this week it has been a great opportunity for some Fall golf at The Country Club of Scranton.  It has also been a good opportunity for the Green Department to get some work completed on the property.  We are continuing to Verti-cut and Topdress fairways.  We have also been able to aerify and topdress approaches and tees.  On Monday, November 3rd we will begin aerifying and verticutting the Old Course Greens.  This will be an aggressive process and will also be very time consuming.  The Fall's Greens, which were aerated a few weeks ago are being mowed today and have healed well, considering they were aerified in early October, will be available.   We are going to make a push to complete everything next week due to the impending lay-off of 90% of the Green Department staff.  The Old Course will remain open next week but it may be necessary to close a hole temporarily to complete the required maintenance.

         Next week you may also see a paving contractor on property doing some much needed improvements to our cart paths.  We will be concentrating our work on #2 and #15.  We will also begin stripping some tees throughout the property so they can be leveled and planted with new sod.  This process will take about a week to complete.  We will be using the sod that we remove from the tees to sod several damaged areas on the Old Course Fairways.

       As you can see there is still a great deal of work to be completed before the onset of Winter.  We have raised the height of cut on our greens to its highest height in the past seven years to prepare the greens for Winter.  We have also increased our fertilizer applications to prepare the plant for the Winter months.  We are doing everything possible to prepare our putting surfaces for what could be another Winter with below average temperatures.

Thank you,

Gregory Boring,
Golf Course Superintendent

Fairway Cultivation

 We are performing an aggressive verticut-cut process to the fairways.  Once they are cleaned up we will be applying approximately 300 ton of sand to the Old Course fairways.  

Naturalized Area Expanded around #8 Pines Tee

The area surrounding the tee complex on #8 Pines has been converted to Fescue Grasses.  This area has limited irrigation and the large area is very labor intensive to mow and maintain on a weekly basis.  The newly planted Fescue Grasses is the perfect grass due to the limited irrigation and will not require the weekly mowing that the area requires now.  This should have no impact on the playability of the hole.