Season Recap

Another golf season has passed us by. We have been rushing around organizing the finishing touches on putting the course to bed. Greens, tees and fairways have had their winter protection products applied. Greens have also been solid tine aerated, heavily topdressed and the winter covers installed. Luckily for us we put our last tarps on the day before our first snow fall. Let’s hope for a cool winter with a nice coat of snow to help protect our greens over the next 4 months.

Early summer brought good course conditions and we were setup quite well for the heat of the coming months. In mid-July we had a week of sweltering, hot days that did not treat our Poa greens gently. Thankfully it did not last long and the greens bounced back well for the remainder of the season.

Changes are always being made to improve any business. Over the last few seasons we have implemented some new practices and have done significant tree work to help increase the quality of the playing surfaces and growing environments. While some of the processes may seem aggressive at times the benefits out way the disruption and hopefully moving forward everything is stronger and healthier. During late fall and winter we will be continuing with our tree program based on green site evaluations and architects recommendations. Also we hope to begin some construction projects that will be finished up in the spring.

Although this past season brought about good golf course conditions, we always look to improve. A new addition to our equipment fleet for next year is a mower to achieve a primary cut on a consistent basis. We have also purchased a solid winter cover for the 15^th green. The gardens on the course and at the clubhouse will have a new look next season. They have all been dug up and replanted, splitting up the perennials. We will continue with our cultural practices of weekly verticutting, topdressing and monthly aerations. These programs have been showing good results and have had minimal disruption to golf due to our maintenance day.

I hope that the members of The Briars have a great holiday season and enjoy their winter. I look forward to see all of you again in 2014.

Patrick Greenman

July Recap

The month of July brought some challenges to the golf course. The heat and humidity at the beginning of the month added extra stress to the greens. Some select areas on the greens and tees took a step back from the healthy conditions we had. We eased up on our mowing and cultural practices on the greens, we increased our fertilization, monitored moisture levels and hand watered when necessary. The month ended with some nice growing weather. The greens are recovering and we are slowly working on getting the speeds back to June conditions.

Moving into August we are preparing for the Club Championship and the Golf Canada events. We have been raising the heights of the rough and will be lowering the heights on the greens. To help provide quality playing surfaces insure you repair your ball marks and fill your divots on tees/fairways. This time of the season you are better off to fill divots with the mix provided than with the divot you have made.

Tee Construction

Due to the small size and not being level we have constructed a new tee on the 16th hole. We now have 3X the size and lots more options for angle and depth to the green. The main construction happened last fall with sod being installed this spring. 

The original look of the tee.

Due to the later start to the season we were finally able to sod three weeks ago. 

We installed 4 extra sprinklers to insure proper coverage while watering.

6 days after sod installed it had been cut.

Rolling to help smooth out the surface.

We are cutting it a higher height of cut and will be topdressing weekly to help level up seems. Extra fertilizer will be added to help build up some strength before it is opened.
With the weather cooperating the tee should be in play by the end of the month.

Course Open

The beginning of a new season has arrived. Hopefully this is the start of some nice spring weather. The course is in good shape and wet spots are slowly drying up.
Over the next few weeks along with our regular maintenance we will be checking sand depths in the bunkers, cleaning up some skunk damaged areas and sodding the blue tee on #3 and #16 tee.

Filling Divots

 The course preparation is going well and we will be open later this week. We had some extra help over the weekend, on Saturday 10 members volunteered there time to fill divots on tees and fairways. We braved a cool start to the day and flurries a few times over the morning. All the fairways and most of the tees where completed. Thanks to the guys, we wouldn't have been able to cover so much ground without you.

Under the Covers

We have begun to take the tarps off some of the greens. What we have seen so far looks promising. Over the next few days we hope to have all the tarps off so we can get a good look at all the greens.

#4 Green

#6 Green

 #9 Green

#18 Green

Start of April

We have had a snowy start to April, hopefully that's the end of that. The majority of the snow has melted on the golf course and we have removed any off the greens. On the south side of some fairways there is snow that will take a little longer to melt, the rain in the forecast will help.

 Snow on the shaded side of #11

 #12

We did not have a tarp on the 12th green this winter and its looking good.

#15 Green

#14

Snow Melting

This past week has been fairly warm and although the greens are still covered, the depth of snow has decreased. It seems that there is little or no ice formation on the tarps.

#10 Green

In some areas along the treelines and in high spots, the snow has melted completely.


#5 Green





Snow Clearing

Clearing snow from #2 Green.

On a 10 degree day the temperature on #2 was 2 degrees.

The sheltered site takes longer to warm up in the winter months. In removing the snow there will be less chance of ice forming with the changing of temperatures we have been receiving. All of the green surfaces are now clear and hopefully we see some cooler temperatures before we get more precipitation.

Weather Change

Its nice to see the cover of snow over the property. I can not remember 24degrees below in the last few years. Looks like the temperatures are on a roller coaster ride this winter. The snow cover is going to help insult the ground and moderate the soil temperature.

Winter?

It looks more like late fall or early spring. We have lost our snow cover with the rains over the last weekend. Thankfully the water has drained off the playing surfaces and the ground is refreezing. Now we are looking for a nice snow cover that lasts for the rest of the winter.
Hope to give updates on a more regular basis going forward.