What a contrast this winter has been compared to last year! Prior to the thaw last week the river was completely frozen over. The warmer temperatures, combined with the rain proved to be too much for the river to remain within the banks, and as a result the river flooded onto portions of the golf course carrying ice along with the water.

As usual, when the river floods, the typical areas of the golf course affected are holes 8-11 and portions of 12 fairway. As a result of the flooding, a few bunkers have been washed out with minor turf damage in isolated areas. Considering how frozen the river was and how quick the thaw occurred we were very lucky!

As greens staff are able to get back out on the golf course in the spring we’ll definitely have some additional work ahead of us to repair the damaged bunkers, isolated turf areas and remove any silt or debris left behind by the flood waters. I am happy to report that the greens covers on 7, 10 and 11 appear to have done their job by preventing the accumulation of silt and debris on the greens surface which can be detrimental to long term plant health and putting green performance.

As of today, the river is mostly clear of ice, this puts us in a good position for the next thaw coming this weekend.

Typically, if the river is clear at this point of the winter the risk of flooding and spring ice flows are greatly diminished. Either way, we’ll continue to keep our fingers crossed and think positively for the next couple of months!

8 greenside bunker. The liner appears to be in relatively good shape, all bunker sand is now on the approach as pictured below.

10 greenside bunker. It’s hard to determine the extent of the damage as the bunker is currently full of snow and ice. The black tube above the ice is the tile drainage for the bunker.