HIGHLAND CC GROUNDS

Happy New Year! The winter weather has certainly arrived with sub zero temperatures and snowfall  accumulating...We were very fortunate this fall with a balmy forecast, work continued right up to the Christmas break is steady fashion. Our most recent phase of drainage work was completed in due time. Dry and warm conditions made for clean and quick work. Areas of focus this fall were the rough, fairway and green on the 14th, some smaller rough areas on 11, 17 and the upper landing area of the 3rd fairway. Our tree management plan is in full swing with the removals of some dead Ash trees. An important part of our tree plan is to re-plant a more desirable species in these key areas. The trees have been tagged for delivery as soon as possible in the spring. Our winter greens preparation plan was completed in due time as well. We have performed all of our fall cultural practices and winter prep tasks to give our greens the optimal chance of winter survival. In addition to our ann...

The fall is a great time to perform a number of necessary cultural practices. Our goal is to amend the upper portion of the greens surface with enough sand to help insulate the crown through the winter as well as removing and diluting organic matter. Below you will find a schedule of cultural practices that we aim to complete before the covers go on and the snow flies!!! Wednesday, Sept. 30th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt Tuesday, Wednesday October 13/14-Course Closure full core aeration with heavy topdressing. October 19th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt October 26th- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 2nd- Light topdressing followed by a Cocoa matt November 9th- Deep Verticut, followed by a sufficient topdressing. November 16th- Post Course Closure, Heavy topdressing followed by Deep tine aeration. Of course this is all in hope that the weather cooperates...happy fall!

Due to a very busy golf schedule and inclement weather, we have not been able to perform some very necessary cultural practices recently. The following is the schedule for this upcoming week: Tuesday a.m.: Venting of all greens with needle tines, followed by a roll. Thursday a.m.: Light topdressing of all greens, followed by a cocoa matt. Both of these practices are integral to a successful summer on our greens. Disruption to play will be minimal.

Due to the forecast for rain on Tuesday (during the day), we will be waiting until Tuesday evening to vent our greens. By postponing this practice we will gain the benefits of a post rain event, therefore allowing the greens to breath.

Hopefully we are through the rain..6+ inches in the last 7 days has made the golf course soft and lush...mowing has now resumed and we should be back to normal soon! With heavy, continuous rain comes compacted soils and root zones. To alleviate this compaction over the next week we will be performing some venting on our greens and collars along with some coring of our tees. Topdressing will also be applied to greens, tees and approaches in the next week. Cultural Schedule: Thursday, July 2nd - Topdressing of Greens and Approaches  & Venting of Collars Friday, July 3rd - Topdressing of Tees Monday, July 6th - Venting of greens with needle tines, followed by rolling Wednesday, July 8th - Coring of Tees, followed by topdressing Here is a link to a post about Greens Venting: http://highlandccgroundsdept.blogspot.ca/2014/06/cultural-practicestopdressing-and.html As always our team attempts to avoid disrupting play as much as possible, our membership's patience is always...

The reality of managing a golf course is that we need to deal with mother nature both in good times and in bad. This past weekend was our 2015 Best Ball tournament and I would suggest that we were arguably in the best shape of the season to date.  Tournament season is a lot of work but is also very rewarding as we are able to groom the golf  course to challenge both members and guests. Everyone on our team pitches in in their own special way to produce a great product...This is also the case when things go sideways. On Monday night a rather large thunderstorm rolled through HCC dropping close to 3" of rain and a considerable amount of debris left in it's path. I am happy to say that within 12 hours the golf course was able to be opened to walkers for play. The tremendous amount of rough and fairway drainage that has been installed is proving itself worthy by leaps and bounds. As of today (within 36 hours) we are able to mow all surfaces and allow golf carts out, wher...

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...