Challenging weather and Spring Aeration

Challenging is the word that I would use to describe 2013's spring weather. Our staff has barely been able to get around the golf course, let alone prepare and groom it to our standards. We have been unable to mow tees, approaches and fairways on a regular schedule. The rough is out of control, literally. We are hoping to get the mowers out into the rough by the weekend. We will begin our annual bunker sand shifting and addition once the golf course is able to handle traffic. Bunker edging has continued and we will also be removing some of the grub damaged sod around some of the bunkers shortly. Grub numbers were way up last fall in our bunker surrounds, the damage is evident. Once repaired, we will be treating these areas this spring to control grub populations.
As part of our cultural program we will be aerifying our greens very shortly. Starting on Sunday (May 5th) afternoon at 4pm we will begin aerification on No. 1 green and then continue through the holes in order until dark. As we work on the greens the pins will be placed into the approaches both for safety and efficiency. We will continue the work on Monday (May 6th) as needed. Our goal during this time is to complete core aeration, removal of the cores, topdress of all greens to fill the holes, interseed with T1 creeping Bentgrass and apply a Potassium based fertilizer. This process will help to set up our greens for a long and challenging season of play. Notices will be posted in both the locker rooms and the pro shop as reminders. As always, your patience and understanding is appreciated.

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Bunker construction on # 17

The past few days we have been able to make great strides on the bunker project on #17. All three of the new bunkers have been shaped and drained. Tuesday morning Ian Andrew our consulting golf course architect, will be painting the final contours in the bunkers. We will then install the bunker boards and back fill with topsoil to the new edges. Once the edges are established we will add the new sand and await sod. The rain and snow that we recieved over the last couple of days has had little effect on the rough shaping process. We are hoping for some drier days to complete the fine tuning and sod prepping.

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)...

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.

HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

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