THE MAD POST

Submitted by Gary Ward, General Manager & C.O.O.

It’s wonderful to be able to get the driving range open earlier this season. Hopefully, it’ll give you an opportunity to come out and enjoy the beautiful forecast this week and get in a few more practice sessions before the course opens.

As I mentioned in the opening announcement for the driving range, unfortunately we are behind in our preparations for opening the course. Until this week, it’s been a cool, wet spring and Chad just hasn’t been able to get his staff started on clean-up due to concerns he has about damaging the course in these soft conditions.

Consistent with our usual practice, Chad has a pre-opening aeration of the greens scheduled for the end of April. We will continue to keep you informed regarding the opening date for the golf course.

Please take a moment to review the other articles in the Post to update you on the various spring activities this year.

Submitted by Carl Penfold, Head Professional

Masters week is something that we all look forward to. It is the first major of the season, played at an iconic venue, and typically provides lots of drama on the back nine on Sunday. It is also a sign to all of us that our season is right around the corner. Augusta National officials and golf fans worldwide had to be excited with the showdown between Rahm, representing the PGA Tour, and Koepka, from LIV Golf. This was the BIG story line heading into the week. In the end, Rahm was able to pull away from Koepka and the field to cruise to a 4-shot victory. There will be many that will blame LIV’s 54-hole, no cut, limited field formats as a reason why their players were not as prepared. LIV players were scattered across the first page of the leaderboard, including Phil Mickelson which was a surprise to me considering he has been struggling ever since joining the rival tour. Clearly this rivalry will continue to be a big story leading up to the next major and likely for the remainder of the season.

 
Submitted by Chad Vibert, Golf Course Superintendent

Spring has been very slow to arrive for 2023, most days have been below seasonal from a temperature standpoint and we have not seen much sunlight during this time.  Our snowpack really didn’t arrive until late February through the month of March and has taken a long time to melt.  Snow remains in our most tree lined areas of the property including 13,14,15,17 and of course #7, all of these areas have significant shade and during a cool late spring like this, snow cover lingers.  During the early parts of December and into January we went through a few freeze thaw cycles but were able to get the green surfaces clear to prevent any ice formation early in the winter season.  The months of December, January and the first half of February saw mild temperatures with very little snow, this along with snow cover through March and early April, was the perfect recipe for turf disease, any untreated areas in our rough were hit hard with snow mould, and we did have some very minor breakthrough on fairways.  The Bluegrass generally recovers quite quickly and the small areas on fairways will take a little longer but will also recover with very little extra input.

We are very pleased to report that all fine turf areas including greens, tees and fairways have wintered well with no ice damage and minimal turfgrass disease.  We have wintered well, but given our high bentgrass populations, proper cultural practices, we put ourselves in the best possible situation to be successful over the stressful winter season.

Submitted by Karen Franklin, Ladies Captain

Hello Ladies!

I am very pleased to introduce myself as your new Ladies’ Captain. 

Rob and I joined the Mad River Golf Club in 2016 and have never looked back.  I tell people that joining the club changed our lives.  Once we joined, we found that cottage living wasn’t active enough for us so, with our new commitment to golf at Mad River, we sold our cottage and now we spend a lot of our summer leisure time playing golf.  We are also skiers and have been skiing at Devil’s Glen since 1979 and at Blue Mountain since 2013, so joining the Mad seemed to be a no-brainer!

Submitted by Ang De Lorenzi, Men's Captain

Submitted by Michelle Larcher, Food & Beverage Manager

Happy Spring, Members! We are busy getting the clubhouse, sunroom and patio ready for you. Some exciting new enhancements for the 2023 golf season include the purchase of new patio furniture, a revamped Cupp’s Corner and additional fun menus.

Enjoy an after round cocktail, like the “Golfer’s Tee” or a pint of Peroni on the new comfort seating located under the covered patio and behind the Pro shop. Cupp’s Corner also got a bit of a refresh with a new display fridge to showcase salads and sandwiches to go and we have installed chalk boards outside so you can see all the offerings for the turn.
 

Submitted by Chef Malcolm

Did you know we order our salmon in fresh, rub it with salt and herbs and then smoke it in house to make the best salmon salad sandwich? Likewise, the turkey breast comes in raw, we season it then slowly roast it. This season, try something different and order a smoked salmon sandwich on multigrain or ask for it in a wrap or simply in a cup to go.

Chef Malcolm