HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

Yesterday our Grounds staff installed our winter covers on our greens. We had a great day with minimal wind and minimal rain. With the forecast for slowly dropping temps, rain, wind and possible flurries we decided to get them down this week. On Friday, we say good bye to the last remaining members of our seasonal staff. We have had a great year and I thank them for all of their hard work and dedication. With only a few of us left for the winter, a number of jobs and tasks are still being completed as of today. I will keep everybody posted on the drainage/cart path work on #2.

In preparing the golf course for winter there are a number of tasks that we need to complete in a relatively short time. We have applied our winter protection fungicide to greens, tees and fairways, aerified fairways with our slicing machine, top dressed tees and approaches and fertilized greens, tees and fairways with a dormant application. Along with these tasks we have continued our tree management program of pruning and removal. We are scheduled to put down the covers on our greens next week, just before the temperatures begin to fall. I will continue to keep everyone updated on the progress of tasks and jobs on the golf course.

This week we began to aerify our fairways with our Bannerman Superject aerifier. This machine is very simple, but it provides huge benefits to the soil and therefore to the turfgrass. This type of aeration slices a hole that reaches up to 6" deep. The tines also twist a little and provide a shatter effect that will allow air, water and therefore roots to reach deeper into the soil. As you can see from the pictures, this is a very non-disruptive process. We can all expect to see this machine out on the golf course periodically throughout the golf season. The machine is equipped with a roller to minimize disruption. You can see from the side view how deep the tines are going into the soil. This is a picture of 15 fairway immediately following the process.

This morning we will begin the winterization of our irrigation system. This process is rather loud as we are running compressed air through all of our sprinkler heads and irrigation valves. Our staff does their best to avoid startling golfers while turning sprinklers on , but part of this process is automated so please be advised...This also means that the half way house and course washrooms are closed for the season. The weather forecast is exceptional for this time of year. Hopefully, we will see you out here enjoying the last week of golf for the season.

You will begin to notice that all of the "stuff" on the golf course is starting to disappear. Yardage markers, cart exit posts, shoe brushes and ball washers to name a few, will be brought in over the next week. We will be leaving the tee markers and the bunker rakes out for another week, but then will come in as well. Next Monday & Tuesday we will be winterizing the irrigation system. This process is rather loud and can be a bit startling at times, please be aware if you are planning on playing during these days. I will be posting some information regarding our winter preparation of the golf course in due time.

The first step is to heavily topdress with a high quality sand that we source out of Huntsville. Second, the Deep Tine Aerifier is run over the green. The sand is both punched into the green as well as vibrated into the holes. The third step is the greens are brushed using a tow behind brush. You can see the results here. The majority of the holes are filled to the top. You can also see the large amount of sand that has been worked into the turf canopy, creating a smooth surface and eventually working its way down to help dilute thatch.

On Monday we completed our heavy topdressing and deep tine aerification. All of our greens were brushed leaving little sand on the surface and the majority in the 8" deep holes. To ensure that we got as much sand as possible into the profile as well as into the turf canopy, we topdressed all greens again this morning at a half rate (compared to yesterday). The greens will obviously be playing rather "sandy" for a bit now. With the forecasted rain events in the next few days the sand will work its way down and we will be looking at green grass again soon. Just as a foot note, over this day and a half process we put down approx. 40 tons of topdressing sand on just under 3 acres of greens. This process will not only encourage deep rooting next season, but will also help to keep melting ice and snow away from the turf canopy (by acting as drains) during those winter freeze/thaw cycles that can be so dangerous to putting greens. As with most of our cultural practices this als...