Shade...before the storm

Before the next day or two fills the course with snow again, I wanted to post a couple of pictures illustrating shade and turf relationships.  As most people know shade and healthy grass do not play well together.  This can be helped by limiting the shade to allow for multiple angles of light to get to the turf during the day.  Simply illustrated grass grows around individual trees but not well in the forest.   Properly spaced trees to allow the sun to move around the tree thus we have sun and shade but at different times of the day, where the forest filters most of the useable light most of the day.

Turf and trees can coexist

I bring this up as we look at how to improve certain areas of the course.  As you can see below, the main landing area of 3 is shaded.  So much that even after all the snow has melted there is still lingering snow and ice in this heavily trafficked area.  We will need to improve this sun /shade ratio if we hope to make this area more playable.  Over time trees continue to not only grow tall, but spread out and as the picture shows, we have a significant shade issue.  Back to the basics, grass does not do well in a forest and essentially that is the effect we have created in the landing area at 3.   Filling divots, limiting traffic, adding more drainage all help but it will be hard pressed to overcome the basic biology of the suns impact on turf health.

Hole 3 landing area

We love our trees, but sometimes the purpose of planting a lot of trees to make an impact when small, needs to be followed with proper cultivation as they grow.  The idea of "plant thick, thin quick" is meant to make pruning and removal a natural process,  and ensures the best health for the trees as they mature and develop.  After all we play the game on grass and that should be our first priority when deciding any course of action.