Hello and welcome to "The Greenkeeper"! Today is Tuesday, January 10, 2012 and this is my first post of the new year! ...sorry for the delay. I sincerely hoped to have posted long before now however I am blaming a period of winter solstice induced depression prolonged by cold and flu viruses, Christmas overeating and field goal kickers. I am happy to report my "funk" finally receded like Jonathan Byrd's hairline and I am now "Back in the Saddle" so here we go!
Sometimes I think if I wasn't an agronomist and a golf course superintendent I might have been a meteorologist. Of course my profession as your golf course superintendent necessitates my constant weather watching and who knows if I would even have an "inner Jim Cantore" if I had pursued other career options. Regardless, I found it interesting to note 2011 ended as the second wettest year during my tenure at CGC with 48.79 inches total rain. The most was when 2009 brought us 54.77 inches rain.
Keeping with the Weather Channel theme did you know December ended at nearly 10 degrees above normal for the entire month with approximately 3 total days recording below average temperatures and 6 total days recording average temperatures and the remainder recording above average temperatures. In contrast December 2010 had only 2 total days recording above average temperatures and 29 total days recording below average temperatures. The entire month of December 2010 ended at nearly 5 degrees below normal! Thus last month we were nearly 15 degrees above where we were at the same time the year before...no wonder all of our short cut bermudagrass turf was confused with green color lingering this late in the season ("What number on Herbstreit, Mr. Kirk?"..."He's confused.").
At this time I would like to close with something new and useful. Many of you enjoy walking the golf course with the aid of your pull, push, motorized carts or as our good friends who invented the game say...trolleys. I am all for the use of trolleys on the golf course and admire each of you that walk this golf course on a regular basis. However the putting surfaces are no place for trolleys and I want to remind everyone to be careful not to take your trolley across the putting greens. Yes, tracks were noticed and identified and that is why I am posting this today. Someone made an innocent mistake and I merely want to prevent it from happening again. Thank you for your cooperation!
The Greens Committee will be meeting this coming Friday (January 13th). Look for my next post to follow a few days later hopefully with something exciting to share. Until then...
See you on the course,
Matthew Wharton
Golf Course Superintendent
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