Anthracnose and the 18th Green

As many members have noticed our 18th Green looks weaker and thinner than any of the others. About a month ago we noticed some decline in the green and began to monitor the progress. Through numerous visits from colleagues and constant monitoring by management, it was determined that physical stress of a weaker variety of Poa Annua had caused the decline. The early, dry and hot spring put the weaker plants into an early onset of stress. Anthracnose is a turf disease that thrives on stressed turf grass. Even though we have been protected through Fungicide applications and fertility, Anthracnose set in on #18. We have sent samples into the Guelph Turf grass Institute to confirm our beliefs. Now that we are certain of the problem, we have began to bring the green back to life. Weekly venting and bi-weekly inter seeding with T1 bentgrass has already started to show promise of a full recovery. We will also be hitting this green in particular with a little bit more Nitrogen to aid in recovery. Luckily, the green is still playable. As always the patience and understanding of our membership is greatly appreciated.

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Finish Grading on #2 & #12 Tees

With the great weather that we have had the last two days, we were able to get the tees shaped and all of the tee mix out to the tees. In this picture here, Derek Vergeer (our contractor) is finish grading #2 Tee to be ready for sod. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain the next couple of days and could hold us up for a bit. We are doing out best to complete these projects in a timely manner, of course with this blog we will keep you updated.

Greens Cultural Management Practices Schedule

The fall is a great time to perform a number of necessary cultural practices. Our goal is to amend the upper portion of the greens surface with enough sand to help insulate the crown through the winter as well as removing and diluting organic matter. Below you will find a schedule of cultural practices that we aim to complete before the covers go on and the snow flies!!! Wednesday, Sept. 30th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt Tuesday, Wednesday October 13/14-Course Closure full core aeration with heavy topdressing. October 19th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt October 26th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 2nd- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 9th- Deep Verticut, followed by a sufficient topdressing. November 16th- Post Course Closure, Heavy topdressing followed by Deep tine aeration. Of course this is all in hope that the weather cooperates...happy fall!

Golf Course Update

As our season slowly comes to a end our department has been working away at year end projects. We installed drainage in a few areas of the practice range and short game area. These areas were perpetually wet and caused turf and aesthetic issues. We have also been chipping away at the bunkers on #17, smoothing out the faces and recreating the grass edges. These bunkers suffered some severe frost heaving in the faces during the winter after they were built. Our team has removed a number of trees and brush from around our maintenance facility to allow some expansion of our operation. We are working away at clearing space to install aggregate bins and sufficient staff parking. This will also allow delivery trucks and semi's to access our facility without any issues. We are also removing the fallen trees and brush from the woodlot on the right side of #16 fairway. This is a challenging area to work as it is a peat bog and remains wet even in the hottest and driest of summers (like 2010)...

HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

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