HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

For the past couple of seasons we have been working on tightening up and firming up our approaches. Through a number of cultivation procedures (aeration, verti-cutting, lower mowing heights and topdressing) we are seeing some results. This week we topdressed our approaches with a rather heavy application of straight sand. The theory with topdressing approaches is the same as with greens, we will dilute the thatch with sand and create a nice sand based playing surface. This will create an area in front of the greens that will be consistent, firm and tight. Here is a picture of Paul putting down some sand on the 4th hole.

Some of the recent wind/thunder storms have caused quite a bit of damage to our tree inventory here at Highland. Part of our tree managment plan is to prune and/or remove any dead, dying or diseased trees and limbs. This past weekend a rather large tree on the right hand side of #16 (down in the valley) lost a large limb. The entire tree has been leaning for some time. We have now cut the tree down to avoid any injury and/or further damage. This maple was not strategic in any way. This is a good time to remind our members about walking in our woodlots, when you enter them looking for stray golf balls you may encounter some dangerous tree situations (hung up branches, etc). We do our best to eradicate these situations, but the woodlots are vast and we cannot get to all of it during the golf season. Here is a video of Brian Zap of Zaps Tree Service dropping the large Maple leaner on #16. Dropping a tree of this size is rather difficult, especially one that is on such a lean. We try to do...

I have mentioned before, performing agronomic practices that benefit turfgrass for the long term, can sometimes stress the turfgrass in the short term. One of my favourite sayings is of course "No Pain, No Gain". Basically saying that "the end justifies the means". As I am sure some of our members have noticed our aerification process has brought out some of the vulnerabilities of our property. On fairways you may notice some very dry and stressed areas (top picture) as a result of the aerification on a hot and dry August day. With the very wet spring and summer that we have had, the root growth on our turf is shallow. In some of these areas the aerifier separated the turf at the root ends and has dried out considerably. Fortunately, one of the benefits of aerification is the promotion of root growth. We are doing our best to hand water and manage these areas to promote recovery... if the forecast holds true with rain and nice warm growing weather we should recover ...

Luckily for us the weather cooperated for our aerification closure days. The members of our department worked very hard and very long during the closure to complete the scheduled aerification and clean up. During those days we were able to aerify, remove the cores, verti-cut, topdress and fertilize all of our greens. We also aerified our fairways along with verti-cutting some aswell. All of the cleanup was done during the closure (although there is a few lingering remnants here and there). Completing this much work would be impossible if were not for the closure. We were fortunate enough to have the proper equipment to complete the job through rentals and loaners from a neighbouring club.