Golf Course Update....

We the recent weather trend (almost 2 weeks without rain!) our department has been very busy and productive. We were able to complete our Vertidrain/Deeptine aeration and topdressing on Greens, Tees and Approaches. Again, this process creates deep channels for air, water and sand to reach into the rootzone. We will be Vertidraining the Greens again prior to closing in attempt to create more drainage channels for water build up throughout the winter. We will not be topdressing this time, as the covers will be installed in the coming weeks.

The drier weather has allowed us to complete a final mowing in the rough as it has been a couple of weeks since we were last able to get the mowers out. Leaf blowing and mulching has been running at full tilt and the golf course is looking cleaner every day. With all of the rain soaked weather that we have experienced, we have noticed a few drainage issues. Clogged tiles have been found in a few instances. This is common in a year like this one with a high volume of water running through these systems. We have been working away at cleaning out and repairing some of these areas.

Our Green surrounds at HCC have been plagued with some washboarding resulting from some sod work done during the bunker project in 2003/04. In certain areas that were cut for bunker mounds, less than ideal amounts of topsoil were left for the sod to grow in. We are experimenting with some different techniques in repairing a couple of these areas. On #4 we have stripped the area left of the green and amended the area with old bunker sand and topsoil. The theory is that the sand will provide a better growing medium and the sod will experience reduced compaction. In the surrounds at #18 Green the topsoil was of higher quality than that on #4 so we amended it with straight topsoil. These areas will be sodded and rolled today.

As for our plans for the next week, we will be winterizing the irrigation system, pump house and course washrooms on Monday/Tuesday. We will also be deep slicing the fairways and rough with our Superject aerifier. If the weather holds, we will complete this prior to our winter/snow mould fungicide application. Course closing is set for November 13th as the last day of play...we hope to see our members out enjoying the golf course over the next week or so.

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The Practice Range Tee

Last fall we utilized a “new to us” method of revitilization for our practice tee. Our contractor TDS, fraize mowed the surface of the tee to remove organic matter as well at to aid in leveling. The tee was then aerified and seeded to a new variety of creeping rye grass. We chose this type of turf grass as research shows rapid recovery and a low growth habit. We were able to get some great growth in the fall, but the tee is still not ready for traffic and full use. The plan is to utilize the mats until growth has filled in some of the voids etc. We will then begin to slowly set up hitting areas on the grass tee. For a while we will alternate between grass and the mats with a 50/50 ratio of use. Once the grass tee is established and is in adequate recovery mode, the practice areas will be back to normal. As always our membership’s patience is appreciated as we try to improve these areas for use.

Venting Greens...

This week we will be venting our greens with needle tines. These tines make a hole that is less than an 1/8th of inch. With our greens being completely saturated from the incredible amount of rain that we have recieved this season, there is no room for air movement in the soil. We need to create very small channels for air movement to the root zone. When roots don't have air, they die. This has not been evident yet, but with the warmer temperatures of July upon us soon, trouble could be lurking. This will be a very non-disruptive process to our members and play. We are going to vent all of our greens over then next few days early in the morning as to not disrupt play. The process is simple, we vent the green using the aerifier and needle tines, roll them smooth and then mow the green. The holes virtually dissapear and are of no effect to roll. I realize that the word aerifier starts to scare people, but this is necessary and again is very clean and non-disruptive. Check out the pic...

Spring Greens Aeration...a week later!

A week has passed since our annual spring greens aeration. We have had a mixed bag of weather, hot, dry, cold, wet and even frost! These conditions make it challenging to aid in healing, but with the more recent consistent warm temperatures we are seeing solid recovery. We were fortunate to have decent weather to complete the process on time, allowing us to fill all the holes created by the 1/2” hollow tines. As there are some minor depressions within some of the holes we will be beginning our bi-weekly topdressing program early next week. Our team is mowing and rolling our greens daily, while slowly lowering our height of cut to our summer norm. We all know that spring cultural practices are not popular among golfers, but these all important tasks are the building blocks for high performance greens conditions throughout the heart of the golf season. Check out this video produced by the USGA on Aerations effect on putting...

HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

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