2018 Recap, Bridge Refurbishments, and Covering Greens

Yes, it has been quite a while since our last blogpost update and for that I apologize.  2018 was a great year at Harrison Bay with some of the best course conditions our Agronomy Staff has produced in quite some time.  Irregardless of the 83 inches of rainfall we received in 2018 (normal amount is 57") our small crew of dedicated team members continued to provide quality, championship conditions while continuing to make course improvements and advances.

One of the improvements we have been working on this winter is to repair and cleanup the bridges which span our wetland areas on holes 13 and 14.  We have removed and replaced any rotting or weak boards from the decking, have begun the process of pressure washing the bridge, and have installed a woven rubber liner in the center of the bridge to make it safer for our walking guests to travel across the bridge.

The walkway material is from PEM Surface and is an excellent product providing a porous, nonslip surface which is easily secured to the decking with silicone glue and decking screws.  We have already had several of our regular walking golfers comment and thank us for this project.  We will finish the project up this month and seal the bridge to help keep this clean, fresh look.

With the cold temperatures heading into the south this week we pulled the covers over the greens today to help protect them.  We do not cover as much as others, and that is perfectly fine.  No two golf courses are the same and no two golf course superintendents do the exact same processes.  We have 15 years of experience with what our greens can handle and our microclimate on the lake gives us a little advantage of staying warmer than other areas in town.

I was asked today "How do the covers actually help protect the greens?".  The illustration to the right does a very good job of describing how the greens covers work but in a nutshell the covers are designed to allow radiant heat from the sun to pass through the cover but not back out easily.  The sunlight warms the leaf tissue and the soil and "traps" the heat against the surface compared to uncovered greens in which the collected heat of the day is easily lost and the surface and soil temperature of the green is allowed to fall to levels detrimental to the health of the plant, and in turn the longterm health of the green.

I hope this helps explain why there are times, like today, when we have to pull the covers during the day when the sun is out and it is all nice and warm and you would love to be out playing golf.  In our experience if we wait too late and pull the covers at the end of the day we are losing a complete day of heat generation and capture and undermining the benefit of the covers.

It is our plan to remove the covers at the end of the week and have the course ready for play for the weekend.  We will update as we get closer to the weekend.