Global Warming and Early Spring

It's tough to decipher facts from fiction these days.  Few of us are capable of giving an accurate opinion on the issue of global warming.  But whether you choose to believe the facts or not - it's tough to deny when the high for March 12 will be 15 degrees at Pike Lake.  Dozens of daily high temperature records were broken in Ontario and across Canada this winter.  Here, there were 22 days above 5 degrees in the months of December, January and February this winter.  Compared to just 2 days last winter during those months.  While we are in no position to call this undeniable scientific proof that global warming is here - it does make you ponder....

Anyways, back to golf.  Global warming may be detrimental to our planet and our species' existence, but hey, at least we can potentially play golf a little earlier.  The immediate forecast is full of warm days and heavy rains.  These little blurps in the weather often excite us and trick us into thinking we will be golfing this weekend. We hope the golf course will open as sooner than later, but keep in mind it's still March - and there's a few weeks of possible wintery weather ahead yet.

The snow is approximately 80% gone at Pike Lake and that has given us the opportunity to check out the grounds of the course to see how it's wintered.  The course has wintered extremely well.  Unlike years past, there was no threat of ice damage and the inconsistency of snow resulted in less snow mold pressure.

The putting greens look spectacular for this time of year. Last fall's 7/16" aerification holes remained full of sand throughout the winter.  The mild December weather promoted slight amounts of growth which was the beginning of the aerification holes closing up.

We hope the warm weather continues to shine and brings the golf course back to life sooner than expected for the 2016 season.  But only Donald Trump and God know when we will open the golf course.  Here's some early photos of the golf course as it wakes up.