New Range Addition

The new Turfhound Driving Range Mat System is being installed today.  These mats will be utilized during early and late season as well as outside events.    As soon as we can use the ball picker to collects balls we will open the mats for the season.

No Warm-up in Sight

The cold temperatures and snowfall continue to plague the region.  We had 3-4 inches of snow fall on Sunday night and the cold temperatures this week will keep the snow around for most of the week.  We will continue to monitor things on the golf course and keep you posted on a potential opening.

Winter is not quite over yet

This morning we woke up to several inches of snow that fell on the golf course.  The Green Department is currently busy with clean up of the property.  We had hoped to set out some temporary greens out for the weekend but that is not likely to happen due to the recent snow fall.  

New Look on #2 Pines

The plant material along the right side of #2 Pines has been removed to open up the hole and allow golfers to locate the golf ball if hit into this area.  The Out of Bounds stakes will be more visible which should help speed up play.  The plant material that was removed is being placed along side Country Club Rd to help screen the 14th hole from the Road.

Ready for 2013

I am pleased to announce we have started off the 2013 season on a positive note.  Golfweek Magazine has just released their 2013 Top 100 Classical Golf Course in America, where the Country Club of Scranton was ranked #92 and even had a picture displayed in the magazine.  The past two years has been very hectic for both the Green Department and the Membership with all the construction that took place.  I am looking forward to giving the membership back their golf course this season with very minimal interruption. With warmer temperatures around the corner we are going to be able to get out and evaluate how we made it through the Winter.  The warmer temperatures this weekend may allow us to open the Falls to Temporary Greens Only.  The ground is completely frozen from recent cold temperatures and will take some time to thaw.  In order for us to open the greens we need to have the root zone of the putting surface completely thawed.  Opening up putting greens with frozen soil will result in root damage to the putting surfaces.  We will keep you posted.

Project Coming to a End

COURSE UPDATE

Many of you have asked the question, “What did we do to the greens?  And why did we do it now.”  The process we performed is called DryJect.  This process involves punching a hole with high pressure water and filling that hole with sand.  This process incorporates a large amount of sand into the root zone of our soil based greens.  The reason we decide to perform this now is due to the quick recovery time while the turf is actively growing.  We decided years ago to change our aerification schedule.  Most golfers are very anxious to get out in the Spring and enjoy a round of golf.  The last thing they want to encounter is aerified greens.  Aerificaiton recovery times can be very lengthy in the Spring due to the cold nighttime temperatures that we encounter in Northeast PA.  For these reasons we have altered our typical aerification schedule.  We have utilized the following schedule the past few years as our aerificaiton schedule for our putting surfaces.

Early June:   Small Hole Aerificaiton
Late July : Large Hole Aerification
Late October: Large Hole Aerification
Mid November: Small Hole Aerificaiton

We realize that the aerificaiton process is not popular one.  We probably dislike it more than anyone.  It is extremely labor intensive and takes many hours to complete.  However, it is a necessary process to allow us to provide quality putting surfaces.  We resumed mowing the greens yesterday and will continue to do so through the weekend.  The sand on the surfaces if very difficult on our mowers and we will struggle to get a quality cut on the greens over the next few days.  The greens should be back to normal speed by the middle of next week and the holes should be a distant memory.

The construction project is progressing well.  We painted out the last hole yesterday and Hawk Shaw should begin working on #2 sometime late next week.  We expect #1 to be completed early next week and #16 and #17 will follow quickly behind #1.  Most of the new sod has been roped off.  Please continue to pay attention to cart signs and cart restriction and take care of the bunkers by raking them once you have played out of them.   The new bunkers and sod will be open for play beginning this weekend.  We will open #18 in approximately a week or two.

As always it is a pleasure to be your Golf Course Superintendent.  We are extremely excited as the project begins to come to a close.  We are continuing to tend to scaring that has taken place during the process by seeding and fertilize these areas.  They will continue to improve over time.

Hope to see you out on the golf course.

Gregory Boring,
Golf Course Superintendent