The weather is looking much better this week

Thankfully, the horrible weather from last week has moved on.  Yesterday afternoon was sunny with mostly blue sky.  It is pretty chilly this morning, but should be a great day for golf after the frost is gone.  It definitely feels more like golf weather again.

Steven cleaning up tree debris behind 9 green

We lost an estimated 25-30 trees during last weeks wind storms.  We spent the majority of our time this week working on clearing trees and picking up debris.  Other than the mess that was created by the storm, the golf course did not suffer any major damage. After the mess was cleaned up, we were able to get the greens, collars, approaches, and tees mowed this week.  The greens were also rolled.

Jerry used the forks on the tractor to get trees moved efficiently

We started to top dress the greens this week, but had to stop when one of the hydraulic motors on the top dresser blew a seal.  Unfortunately, The motor is located on the very back of the top dresser and can't be seen by the operator.  To make matters worse, spreading sand over the the hydraulic oil on the turf makes it almost impossible to see the leak unless you are using dry sand (which we do not have due to our recent wet weather).  Consequently, we ended up with some hydraulic oil on 14, 15, and 16 greens.  At this point, we are waiting to see how the turf will recover.  Right now, it does not impact ball roll. However, if the turf dies in the areas where the leak occurred, we may have to due some turf repairs.

Hydraulic oil spots on 16 green two days after leak occurred