Bunkers, hazards and sand management...

It is no surprise to our membership that we have had our challenges with our bunkers. Compaction and inconsistent sand depth are the top two. Through a number of discussions with our Greens Committee and Director of Golf we have devised a plan going forward to alleviate the issues that we experience with these hazards.
First and foremost we will continue to monitor each bunker for sand depth and condition. The goal is to have 4 inches of cultivated sand at the bottom of our bunkers. Inclement weather can make consistency a challenge as sand can wash out and become to firm at the bottom. Going forward into 2015 we have devised a plan to cultivate the bottoms of the bunkers with a rototilling attachment. This method will help to alleviate the compaction that can occur during wet or rainy periods. The addition of a Sandpro mechanical bunker rake will also help with regular cultivation and consistent grooming of the bunker bottoms. In coordination with these programs for maintenance, we will continue to invest training and labour into our bunker program.

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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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