Skip to main content

Spring Fever!!!!

Currently we are experiencing very high temperatures across Ontario, record breaking (in some areas) in fact. This week we were able to remove the covers from our greens and we are happy to report that our greens wintered well. This season we were able to remove the covers almost 3 weeks prior to last year...does this mean that the turf is 3 weeks ahead??? Not necessarily. The turf grass on the greens is healthy and alive, but far from playable. Turf grass needs to be actively growing to handle the traffic from mowing, rolling and foot traffic. Opening our greens too early can set us back for the beginning portion of the season.
Here at HCC we typically open on the Monday following the Masters weekend...however with the record setting warm temperatures there has been a lot of "conversation" about opening early. While people are correct in saying that we are a little ahead of last year, there is still a program, plan and process to opening the golf course. This program is done annually to ensure a healthy, well presented and playable golf course for our membership.

Prior to opening our list of tasks includes, but is not limited to...
General course clean up (branches & debris)
Mowing of all playable areas 2-3x (greens, tees, fairways)
Bunker clean up and general repair (liner & debris)
Solid tine/slicing of fairways
Deep tine aeration of Greens
Heavy topdressing of Greens
Deep tine aeration of Tees and Approaches
Stump removal, clean up and sod preparation
Pump house and irrigation system set up and pressurizing
General course accessory set up

As you can see there is a fairly large amount of work to be completed prior to course opening. This nice, warm weather not only gets people excited about playing golf, but allows us to complete these tasks in an efficient manner, therefore presenting our members with a golf course that they can be proud to play....right out of the gate!
As we progress through our list of tasks and jobs we will continue to evaluate all considerations for choosing an opening date...as always, we will keep you posted!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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.
Post a Comment
Read more

Winter is here...

Happy New Year! The winter weather has certainly arrived with sub zero temperatures and snowfall  accumulating...We were very fortunate this fall with a balmy forecast, work continued right up to the Christmas break is steady fashion. Our most recent phase of drainage work was completed in due time. Dry and warm conditions made for clean and quick work. Areas of focus this fall were the rough, fairway and green on the 14th, some smaller rough areas on 11, 17 and the upper landing area of the 3rd fairway. Our tree management plan is in full swing with the removals of some dead Ash trees. An important part of our tree plan is to re-plant a more desirable species in these key areas. The trees have been tagged for delivery as soon as possible in the spring. Our winter greens preparation plan was completed in due time as well. We have performed all of our fall cultural practices and winter prep tasks to give our greens the optimal chance of winter survival. In addition to our ann...
Post a Comment
Read more