Updated Hours of Operation and Greens Uncovering this week!

 

Greens Uncovering THIS WEEK

On February 28^th, the sun won’t set until 6pm, and it won’t set before 6pm until October 29^th!  Longer days are coming, and so is more sunlight and warmer temperatures!  On average in the months of December and January, New Jersey sees less than 150 hours of sunlight, which is less than 5 hours per day.  Compare that to the Spring, and we’re averaging more than 8 hours per day until we get to the summer!   Why are we sharing all these fun, weather related facts with you, because we are planning to pull the tarps off of the greens the week of March 11^th (weather permitting) and we felt it important to communicate our process and expectations for the upcoming season.

What will they look like? 

They will still have some visible holes when uncovered, and this is common, when uncovering the greens from their winter hibernation. 

They will be very green, much greener than the rest of the course.  They may turn a little brown in early Spring when we still have cooler nights or frost.  This is very common, and rest assured the greens are still ok should this happen. 

How will the greens perform?

When we first uncover them, even though they’ll still show signs of recovering, the playability should be fine.  Our Grounds Department has been mowing them regularly and have been rolling them as well to get them ready for play in the Spring. 

Overall, the greens should be in pretty good shape when scores can start being posted again in April.  Of course, the real benefit of this will be seen all season long.

Why did we cover the greens if they’re still going to have aerification holes in them?

The goal of moving aerification to the early winter and tarping through the winter is to improve the conditions during the official golf season (April 1 through November 14).  This process will eliminate aerification in May and August and risk of slow aerification recovery during the cooler May and June periods.  The tarps give us the best insurance to get the aerification holes to heal before the official golf season and reduce the number of days per year impacted by aerification holes within the actual playing season and allow for more member tournaments under optimal conditions.