Snow!
Obviously this means the ultimate end of the golfing season. This really is a good thing for the turf grass. The turf had a good fall, and we had some very good, colder temperatures to help make the turf go dormant. This snow cover that we have today and the 7 – 12” that are predicted tomorrow will really act as a very good insulation blanket against the cold winter winds. So while we don’t like to shovel the white stuff it is a good protection for the turf.
Now on the flip side of things, the snow creates a tremendous amount of work for the golf course maintenance department. We spend a lot of man hours on removing the snow from the sidewalks and driveways. Our biggest problem is getting the snow out of our way so we can handle more snow. All of the snow that we receive has to be blown out to #10 south. This is the only place that we can store it, so we have a big tractor mounted snow blower to handle that task.
Up at the tennis dome, snow is our # 1 concern in the winter time. The snow obviously does not stick to the dome but slides down the sides. A six inch snow will result in about 4 – 6 feet of snow down at the bottom of the dome. All of this accumulated snow has to be shoveled, then blown away from the dome. No machinery can be against the dome because you do not want to take a chance of puncturing a hole into the side of the fabric.
So again we have mixed emotions on snow in our department but it is something that we all have to deal with.
Rick Tegtmeier, CGCS
