HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

Well, we thought that we were in for a nice warm, calm winter...but Mother Nature changed that pretty quick in the month of February! We have received an incredible amount of snow this month, making outside work rather difficult, never mind that the temperatures have hovered around -20! In late December our drainage contractors completed the work on #5, #7 and the Practice Range. All of the drainage systems were installed with only a minor amount of sodding and cleanup left to be done this spring. The majority of our tree work (removals, pruning and transplants) were completed before the weather turned. We do anticipate being able to get back out to do some more tree work prior to spring. A few of our members have been asking about the condition of our greens this winter. In the aftermath of the spring of 2014 the concern is higher than usual. We are relatively happy about what we have out there right now. There is a very minimal layer of very "airy" ice on some greens....

As December begins we find ourselves still very busy out on the golf course. We have just completed our winter preparation plan for our greens. After dealing with the harsh winter of 2014, we have modified a few elements of the plan from previous winters. The following is the plan in chronological order (as completed): September: -Height of cut raised following Men's Club Championship weekend. This process reduces the stress that we place on the turf following a long summer. More leaf blade allows for more sunlight and more fertilizer to enter the plant. Another added benefit to longer turf is the ability to build our sand layer within the canopy of the turf, further insulating the crown (growing point) of the turf. -As previously noted, Topdressing, we continued our Bi-weekly topdressing program from September to the installation of our covers. Insulation of the crown helps to protect the plant during cold and harsh winter weather. October: -Increase in fall fertil...

As of Thursday, October 30th all of the bathrooms on the golf course will be closed for the season. Winterization of the irrigation system is scheduled for Monday, November 3rd and Tuesday, November 4th.  Prior to the actual "blow out" of the system and bathrooms, we manually drain all lines to the best of our ability.

The shoulder seasons (Spring and Fall) are a great time for our department to work away at the many cultural practices that help our turfgrass survive the rigours of summer. With greens aeration behind us, we will be moving onto our fairways. Beginning on Monday, October 27th we will be using our Sissis verticutting unit on our fairways. This is a rather messy process as we remove a tremendous amount of organic matter/thatch at one time. The process: 1. Deep verticut of the fairway. 2. Blow the debris to the centre of the fairway using multiple blowers. 3. Collect the debris with our turf sweeper. 4. Re-blow the fairway as a final cleaning. We anticipate that we will complete all of the fairways/approaches within the week. Of course, weather permitting! As always our memberships patience and understanding is greatly appreciated during these integral cultural practices.

Fortunately the weather held up for us on Monday! We were able to core all of our greens, remove the cores, topdress and Greensweep! Today is another story! Deep Verticutting is almost done and cleaned. But that will end our work on greens for today. Typically we apply a second topdressing and spend numerous man hours working the sand into the holes...but damp and wet conditions have hampered progress. Therefore we will be applying a topdressing of sand on Wednesday morning to be followed by a brushing. With a dry forecast ahead, this should finish off the holes and verticut lines in our greens. The next step will be to roll the greens to help smooth them out from all of the abuse. We will then apply an application of soluble fertilizer to aid in recovery.

As with many golf courses our most inconsistent playable area of the property is our bunkers. In an effort to provide more consistency to our bunkers we have developed a new strategy for bunker maintenance here at HCC. Most often a member will have issues with inconsistent sand depth. Common practice for our department is to periodically go through the bunkers and measure depth of sand, followed by shifting and or adding sand to areas in need. Where this becomes a challenge to maintain is during season like we have just experienced...wet...washout wet! During the season of 2014 we have had more wash out rains than ever in my tenure at HCC. Our staff has shovelled out contaminated sand at an alarming rate, dare I say that we have removed almost as much as we added in the spring. Going forward we have committed more resources to bunker maintenance in regards to depth control and consistency. The second largest issue that members have with our bunkers (particularly the green sides) ...

Due to the rainy forecast for the rest of the week, we have rescheduled the course closure for Greens Aeration to Monday, Oct. 20th and Tuesday Oct. 21st.   Therefore the golf course will be open for play on Tuesday, Oct. 14th and Wednesday, Oct. 15th.