Members and staff at clubs in New Hampshire and Maine agreed that the extreme and extended conditions left the most severe turf-recovery challenges in memory.
Separate reports on how golf courses in New Hampshire and Maine are dealing with the need to repair damaged turf from the extreme and extended winter indicated that the challenges are unprecedented in their severity, and that recovery will have its costs.
Television station WMUR New Hampshire 9 in Manchester reported that area courses “are in rough shape as spring weather returns to the region.”
One veteran golf course superintendent said the damage to the grass is the worst he’s ever seen, WMUR9 reported.
“I’ve been doing this for over 25 years, and I’ve never seen a winter like this,” said Rob Horn of Stonebridge Country Club, a public course in Goffstown, N.H.
Horn told WMUR9 that he has heard from his colleagues that the same is true at most courses around the Northeast, as they begin to open and assess the damage done by the extreme conditions this winter.
The challenges comes from a thick layer of ice that formed over the short grass on the greens and prevented the blades from breathing, Horn said. When the grass can’t breathe, he explained, toxic gasses are trapped, and the grass suffocates.
At Intervale Country Club in Manchester, N.H. golf professional Matt Thibeault told WMUR9 that warm weather, water, seed and fertilizer will help the situation.
“We have some ice damage on the short-cut grass, which is mostly greens and fringes and approaches,” Thibeault said.
The damage won’t affect impact play, experts interviewed by WMUR9 said, but players might notice repair work being done.
All of the damage noted in the WMUR9 report was expected to be fixed in the next few weeks.
A report in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald about damage experienced at courses because of the severe winter in New England’s northernmost state, however, said the cost of needed repairs will have an adverse impact on the properties’ profitability this season.
Randy Hodsdon, Director of Rules and Competition for the Maine State Golf Association and someone who has been playing golf in the state for four decades, told the Press Herald that he couldn’t remember a spring when courses all over the state were in such poor condition.
“I’ve never seen so much widespread damage,” Hodsdon told the Press Herald.
The harsh winter has taken a toll on more than just the golfers eagerly waiting to play again, the Press Herald reported; it has also caused significant damage to golf courses, which have lost income and had to make costly repairs.
Periods of freezing and thawing this winter caused ice damage to grass, most notably on the greens, which led to winter kill that has forced local courses to carve out temporary greens on fairways to allow the regular greens to recover, the Press Herald reported.
“Even turf that is dormant is still respirating and feeding itself,” said Ed Michaud, Golf Superintendent and part owner of Fox Ridge Golf Club in Auburn, Maine told the Press Herald. “The ice forms such a tight seal, the grass can’t breathe and it suffocates.”
Riverside Golf Course in Portland, Maine now has 11 temporary greens on its North course, the Press Herald reported, and the Purpoodock Club in Cape Elizabeth, Maine has six temporary greens. In addition, Portland Country Club in Falmouth, Maine has resodded its 14th green because of severe winter kill and canceled a midweek amateur tournament for a Maine golf association that was scheduled for May 6.
In South Portland, Maine, the course at Sable Oaks Golf Club still wasn’t scheduled to open as May started for another two weeks, the Press Herald reported, and the Val Halla Golf & Recreation Center in Cumberland, Maine was just opening as of May 2nd.
The Press Herald’s report also noted that the problem extended south to other states, with the Manchester Country Club in Bedford, N.H., also installing temporary greens, and the Salem Country Club in Peabody, Mass. expected to open late.
Hodsdon, who was a golf pro before working for the state golf association, confirmed that other New England states, as well as parts of New York state, have all been affected.
“There’s definitely a line in the middle of Massachusetts and everything north of it got hit,” said Hodsdon. “The courses in southeastern Massachusetts and in Rhode Island along the coast never got touched. I was at a meeting at TPC Boston [in Norton, Mass., a little south of Boston], and the course looked like Augusta National at the Masters.”
“It’s frustrating,” Matt Greenleaf of Portland, one of the state’s top golfers, told the Press Herald. “Maine has a short golf season to begin with. It’s tough to get your confidence putting when there’s so many different types of greens.”
A study by the University of Maine’s School of Economics found that the state’s golf industry generated $269.5 million in revenue in 2011, the most recent year for which data was available, and also accounted for 4,935 full- or part-time jobs producing $90.4 million in income, the Press Herald reported.
With the season starting slowly, those figures could take a hit in 2014, it was noted.
“We’ve lost a month of the season,” said Dick Browne, whose family owns Natanis Golf Course, a 36-hole layout in Vassalboro, Maine, told the Press Herald. Browne estimated that the late start would cost Natanis $10,000 to $15,000 in lost greens fees.
“That amount you can’t get back,” he said.
Ryan Scott, General Manager of Riverside GC, said the municipal course opened 12 days later than last year. That’s a loss of $12,000 in greens fees from a year ago, he told the Press Herald.
Golf course superintendents in the state also reported that they have had to spend more money than usual on grass seed. They’re already doing greens maintenance that typically doesn’t start until mid-May, the Press Herald reported, such as overseeding and aeration to jump-start the growth of the grass.
“I’ve spent three times the amount I usually spend on seed,” said Toby Young, Superintendent at Val Halla and President of the Maine Golf Course Superintendents Association.
Where Young normally pays $1,000 for seed per season, the Press Herald reported, that tab has grown to $3,000 this year.
Some superintendents in the state used covers to warm the greens at night during the winter, the Press Herald reported. Waterville Country Club in Oakland, Maine spent $20,000 for six of the covers, it was noted. And as spring began, some superintendents were still using the covers to warm the greens and aid grass growth.
“[Course] superintendents do the best they can, but if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, there’s not much you can do,” said Waterville’s head golf professional, Don Roberts.
Courses in the Maine’s northernmost regions still weren’t scheduled to open for a while as April ended, the Press Herald reported, and those in the mountains, such as Sugarloaf Golf Club in Carrabasset Valley, Maine and Sunday River Golf Club in Newry, Maine still had significant snow cover.
The Maine State Golf Association normally hosts weekly amateur tournaments from mid-April to mid-November, the Press Herald noted, with the first one usually held at Biddeford-Saco Country Club in Saco, Maine, a property known for its good drainage. That tournament had been scheduled for April 18-19, but “The course called us and canceled,” said Hodsdon. “They had five temporary greens.”
This was the first time the opening tournament couldn’t be played at Biddeford-Saco, said Nancy Storey, Executive Director of the golf association.
The following weekend, the weekly association tournament did take place at Fox Ridge GC in Auburn, the Press Herald reported. The course had significant winter kill damage, but all the greens were open.
“We’ve got a fair amount of damage, but I think everyone does,” said Michaud, the part-owner of Fox Ridge. “This is the first time in the 13 years the course has been opened that this has happened.”
Greenleaf, who works at the Golf and Ski Warehouse in Scarborough, Maine mentioned another effect of the situation to the Press Herald: Not as many people are buying golf balls.
“People are still excited about the new equipment,” he said, “but the sale of golf balls is down. They’re not playing as much so they aren’t losing as many balls.”
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