Welcome back to the Lander Golf Club if you are reading this post you probably have nothing better to do or you really are interested in what I have to say. This winter was a very long one for all of us in the Lander Valley. The course was covered in snow from the second week in December until the last week in March. This provided nice cover for the course and was a blessing for the cross country skiing activities that seemed to take advantage of this wonderful gift. The weather recently has given us another shot of moisture but it seems our wind speeds have been drying the ground up at an unpleasant rate.

Many of you commented and noticed the scars on the greens a couple of weeks ago. These marks are the result of Fusarium Patch (snow mold) which can be attributed to wet and cool conditions. Furthermore soils that are high in ph and under snow cover for long periods of time this disease can spread quite rapidly. The effects of this common problem are a “frog-eye” circular pattern with mainly visual blemishes and is more a cosmetic injury than a complete loss. This damage has almost healed and in the next few weeks the patches will be gone. We were fortunate to have caught this disease in the beginning stages before further damage was done.

The timing of this last snow storm couldn’t have been better as we struggle this time of year trying to keep enough water in the pond to offset the typical Wyoming wind. We also fertilized the greens two days before this system and this has given the greens a nice kickstart for the spring.