Spring Conditions Update – Golf Courses

May 13, 2025

Welcome to the 2025 golf season! We are excited to get the season started and to provide our golfers a quality product and golfing experience.

The winter of 2024-25 was a challenging one, with multiple rain/snow events that caused ice layers to form on the turf surface as early as December. Ice accumulations can cause suffocation and eventual death of the turf if present for extended periods. The maintenance staff worked all winter, blowing snow and attempting to remove ice from the greens surfaces. We were successful on most of the greens, but a few greens on the Championship Course suffered some ice damage. There was also ice formation and damage on several fairway areas of the Championship Course, where the water collected and then froze on the surface. Due to the higher elevation of the Mountain Course, there was much less ice damage since most of the precipitation falling there was in the form of snow, not the rain that can then freeze on the surface.

From the time the snow melted, we have been aerating, seeding, sodding, fertilizing and watering the damaged areas to stimulate growth. Early spring is not an easy time to grow new turf due to the colder temperatures, but we have seen some progress, especially in the fairway areas. There is a lot of recovery taking place, but it will take some time and consistently warmer temperatures to achieve full coverage. As the Championship Course opens, we will have temporary greens set up in the approaches on holes 7 and 14, for a short period, to allow those greens to continue to recover without traffic on them. Recovering areas throughout the course will be marked as “Ground Under Repair” or will be staked off to limit activity. Golf carts will be restricted to the paths until the turf is sufficiently recovered to withstand extensive cart traffic. On both courses, you will encounter a few wet spots where groundwater continues to surface, but we expect those to begin to dry up soon.

Despite these challenges, the majority of the playing surfaces on the golf courses will be in good early-season condition. We appreciate your patience and understanding as the courses recover from a tough winter, and eventually get to the outstanding conditions you have consistently experienced and come to expect.

We look forward to seeing you on the golf courses soon!

Jeff Clouthier, CGCS
Grounds Superintendent