Skip to main content

Golf Course Update...

A lot has happened since my last post here on the blog...Men's Club Championship weekend was very well received as Mother Nature cooperated and our members were presented with a firm and fast golf course.
Following Club C we began our fairway aerification program. We were off to a great start only to be halted by two 3" rain storms that flooded the golf course to the point of unplayability.
Through capital improvements on drainage, the golf course can take heavy rains much better than in the past...but two heavy storms back to back were just too much (6.25 inches in 6 days). Albeit, the fairways and rough with new mainlines and slit drainage were much further ahead in regards to playability the day after each storm. One of the hardest hit areas during these storms was our bunkers. We have had issues with the drainage in our bunkers, storms like this really show any weakness in infrastructure. Not only were the bunkers washed out and contaminated, but some of the faces were completely eroded. Needless to say repair of such dramatic damage is very labour intensive. Typically after Labour day our bunker maintenance lowers due to having less staff available from those lost that have returned to school, etc. In a case like this, we were forced to allocate full days to bunker repair just to present a playable golf course for our members. The task of bunker repair includes repair to the eroded faces, removing the contaminated mud and sand by hand, shovelling sand to redistribute as evenly as possible and numerous rakings to soften the compacted, wet sand that remains (substantial hand work required in all 60 bunkers). Due to this time commitment the priority list tends to shift and some of the golf course detail work that is normally completed on a daily and weekly basis has to be neglected.
The good news is that we are now having a wonderful stretch of weather and we are back on track. Fairway aerification has been completed and the bunkers are back in play. We are currently completing tee aerification ( Thursday, Sept 25th) and topdressing will follow.
As always our memberships' patience during both these trying times and all important cultural practices are greatly appreciated. We hope to see everyone out enjoying this incredible fall weather...the sun is shining!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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)...