Skip to main content

Golf Course Update....

It has been a busy couple of weeks here at HCC. Spring weather has appeared, disappeared and reappeared!!!! Temperatures nearing 30C followed by temperatures nearing 0C has all of us scratching our heads! Nevertheless we have forged on with our spring preparations for the golf course.
As part of our tree management plan we have planted some new trees in strategic areas to increase the enjoyment of the golf course while not interfering with agronomics and playability. We have also sodded and seeded the areas remaining after the stumps were removed as part of this program.
Our team is now into full swing with our typical mowing routines. The rough is growing at an alarming rate as it typically does in the spring at HCC. Our operators are working at full efficiency and have a goal of mowing the entire golf course 2X/week. Both of our first cuts being around the fairways and around the greens are also into our routine.
We have been working on our overseeding program in the rough as well. Using a Shade mixture of high quality seed we have slit seeded all of the typically thin areas under the trees and shaded high traffic areas. Using a Sun mixture we have hit all of the areas around greens, cart paths and general trouble areas to increase the population of desirable grasses.
The recovery in our winter damaged areas on greens are slowly coming along. We will continue to hand topdress (with green sand) the areas to help bridge the grasses and aid in ball roll.
It is this time of year that we experience the Poa Annua seed head flowering on the greens. This occurrence typically slows down green speed and creates a bumpy roll. Our mowing heights are still up a bit to aid in recovery, but we are rolling daily to help with increased ball roll. As the seed head stops and recovery increases, green speeds that we are used to at HCC will follow.
This week we are working away at broadleaf weed control.  We have started on our bunker and green surrounds, then moving into the large rough areas. We will also be spraying within the bunkers to control grasses and weeds that typically grow around the inside edge and in the large sand faces.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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.