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Thursday, March 13, 2003 Page: 3B
The harsh and lingering winter of 2002-2003 is not only affecting high
school and college practices, it’s affecting the area’s golf courses.
Cleve Coldwater, the golf professional at the Glenmaura National Golf Club
in Moosic, says the course is behind schedule.
“Last year, we opened March 10. The weather’s looking like it might break
this weekend, but we’re still going to need about two and a half weeks. If we
get open by the first part of April, it’d be nice.”
Coldwater says he’d prefer to “airify” the course soon. Digging holes
throughout the greens allows air and nutrients to reach the roots and provides
for healthier grass. He says that process might be delayed if things don’t
warm up.
“Soil temperatures need to get above 40 degrees for things to start
getting green. Right now though, we’ve had such a nasty winter
temperature-wise, and we still have a lot of snow left on the golf course.”
Tony Barletta, general manager of the Blue Ridge Trail Golf Club in
Dorrance Township, says the course is a few weeks behind schedule. “Last
year, we opened on March 2. Optimistically, I’m looking to get open for March
22.”
Barletta says the weekend forecast, which calls for several consecutive
days 50 degrees or more, should help.
“The March sun gets pretty warm, and hopefully it’s going to melt a lot of
snow,” he says. “The key is not only the daytime temperatures, but the
nighttime temperatures. From Friday on, they’ll calling for nothing below
freezing.”
Coldwater, like Barletta at Blue Ridge, says the greens at Glenmaura will
be in fine shape soon and that they’ll easily be in top form by June 11-15
when the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic is scheduled to visit the course.
Still, Coldwater says the lingering signs of winter have been bad for early
business.
“Usually, you’d have people starting to mill around,” he says. “They’d
come to the pro shop, or come to the club to kind of get a taste of what might
be coming up.
“But his year …,” he adds with a laugh, “… this Saturday, we had one
phone call, and it was a wrong number.”
Alan K. Stout