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Spring is in the air, is golf on your mind?  The grounds teams around the area are working hard to get the courses ready for play.  Everything from blowing snow off the course to clearing tree debris.  This winter has left behind a lot of challenges for the Tahoe golf teams.

To get an idea of what goes into getting the course ready after winter, I spoke with Travis Alley, Director of golf at Tahoe Mountain Club.  Alley’s team started the process of getting the course ready to open in the middle of March by actually snowplowing the course.  The team would have to plow the cart path in order to get to the greens.  This means plowing layers of 5-10 feet of snow to get to the greens.  Usually they are battling 2-3 foot snow pack, this year it was more like 10-15 feet.

It is important for the crews to get down to the greens fast to prevent freeze thaw (the process of thawing in the day and freezing over night) vs. the deep freeze over the winter months that actually preserves the greens.  Once the green is uncovered, a tarp is laid out over the green creating a sort of greenhouse effect that stimulates growth.  Growing grass this way takes about 4 weeks before the course can open.  As for the fairways and the rest of the grounds, it’s just a waiting game until the snow melts.

Old Greenwood is in good shape. At Gray’s Crossing, they are using a type of black mulch to sprinkle on the snow that attracts the sun and speeds up the melting process.  In the meantime there is plenty to do with massive amounts of tree branches and other debris to clear.

Old Greenwood is scheduled to open May 19, 2017, one of the first openings in the area.

We area all excited and ready to hit some golf balls.  Below are the scheduled dates for Truckee resort golf courses to open.

 

Old Greenwood: 5/19/17

Gray’s Crossing: 5/26/17

Martis Camp: 5/25/17

Northstar: 5/26/17

Lahontan: 5/19/16

Tahoe Donner: Mid-June