Spring Weather

The course is greening up nicely. We have been able to do our first few cuts and the greens are looking good. There is inconsistent growth on the greens right now due to the fact that some areas are getting more sunlight than others and warming up the soil temperatures. Hopefully with some consistent weather everything will be actively growing soon.

#3 Green

#12

We have started our cultural programs for the season. We are trying to get our first aeration done before we get open but it has been hard to get around the whole property. We are starting with a deep tine aeration that punches holes about 8 inches deep. This is giving the roots easy access through any layers in the soil that may have been slowing them down. The next steps in the process are all weather dependent, so we will see how things are looking next week.

Deep Tine Aerator

Wide spacing to insure less disruption

The weather for the remainder of the week is not looking great. With rains and cooler temperatures it will slow down our ability to get the course ready for play. We haven't been able to get out on the course with our bigger equipment yet and the weather forecast isn't going to help. The bunkers haven't been touched yet as we don't want our efforts to be wasted if we get the rain they are calling for. We are hoping that the course won't fair to badly through the end of this week, so we can move forward with course preparation and important cultural practices. 

Spring Update 2017

This has been an interesting week of weather. We welcome the rain to insure enough moisture for the plant while it wakes up. The snow has slowed us down for a few days, which is a good reminder of the unpredictability of April weather.

The 10th Tee

Lots of standing water

Across the River

With these fluctuations in temperature over the last few weeks, the perforated tarps have helped to protect the plants by regulating these changes. It looks like next week they will need to be removed so we can start to prepare the greens for play. At this time, we believe the greens have survived the winter well but with the tarps still on we haven’t seen all areas yet. 

A peek under a tarp

The newly sodded tees on #3 and #5 have wintered well. There is still some work to be done on the surrounding areas such as sodding and installing the steps. We look forward to getting them into play as soon as possible.

New tees on #3

New tee on #5

We have lots of course clean up and set up to do before we open, so hopefully the weather cooperates in the following weeks. We will start with debris clean up and the first cuts on the playing surfaces. Hopefully we will be able to start our cultural practices of aerating, topdressing, brushing and verticutting. The plants should begin growing, so they can handle any stress that may be added from maintenance or golf. For active growth we need the soil temperatures to increase, which is directly related to the air temperature, so we are looking for some nice days with warmer nights.

We are looking forward to a new season.

Spring Update

Spring has arrived and we have taken a look at most of our greens. We removed our impermeable tarps a few weeks ago and the greens seem to have come through the winter well. There are no noticeable areas that need repairs at this time. When the weather becomes more consistently warm we will be taking the remaining tarps off which will let us have the best indication of how we really handled the winter. Our winter protection program for snow mould has been successful. There seems to be only minor disease found on some fairways that will recover quickly with the appropriate weather.

#9 Green - after impermeable tarp removed

#17 Green - this was the first season we had a impermeable tarp on this green and it has come through winter well

Spring weather so far has been wet and cold, there has been lots of standing water around the course. We are lowering the ponds to help the water work its way off the playing surfaces. Hopefully things dry up soon so we can get around the course to do clean-up from the winter and ice storm. If we start travelling around the course when its wet like this we will have even more clean-up to do.

 Standing water on #1 Fairway

The weaker trees have had many branches break off from ice build up and high winds.

Tree uprooted from ice storm and high winds

Bridge Repair

During the 2015 season it became apparent that one of the main support beams on the bridge was deteriorating. Extra support was added to compensate for the remainder of the season. We had an engineer assess the bridge and spec out the needed repairs. As you can see form the picture below the beam was in need of replacement. In late winter we had a contractor in to dissemble the required section and do all the necessary repairs to insure the safety of all that travel across the bridge.

 Pieces of the deteriorated beam that was removed

Only the one section had to be replaced at this time. The engineer will be putting together a report explaining what has been done and any recommendations going forward to insuring its the bridges longevity.

Dismantling section of bridge to prepare for new beam

Reassembling bridge with new beam

The new beam

 Everything back together

Aeration

 Aerating 9 Fairway

On Monday and Tuesday we were able to aerate all our fairways. Throughout the remainder of the week, we have been doing extra clean-up around the edges, giving the fairways a cut, filling areas with divot mix and adding extra water to help in recovery. This is a process that we like to do when the grass is actively growing so recovery time is minimal. As well, the warm and dry weather helps with our clean up and in the summer we have our highest number of staff to assist with the process. We attempt to get them done over a few days so that disruption to golf doesn’t drag on.

Clean up of Aeration

Our next small tine greens aeration will be on August 24th. This will set up the greens for a busy September with hopefully some great weather. We have decided on a 5-7 week rotation of greens aeration because of the results we have seen in the past. The many benefits include a healthy stand of turf on our greens, effective fertilizer and chemical applications, controlled thatch levels and effective infiltration rates of water during irrigation and rain events. The smaller tines are less disruptive so healing time is minimal. If we leave the greens to long without the aeration they are less responsive and become sealed on top. Gases buildup under the surface that need to be vented on a regular basis.

Due to the age of our greens we remove the cores and back fill with sand. This will modify the top of the soil profile helping with infiltration of water and firming up the surface.

Take a moment and click on the links below that discuss aeration.
 http://tinyurl.com/o78fftc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=863Ix8czcoY

Also look at Core Aeration by the Numbers. This will help explain what our goal is and how we came about putting our program together. We are using ¼” tines at 1.5” x 1.5” spacing (similar to 1” x 2” on articles chart). We are getting close to the 20% that they discuss. If we where to limit the amount of times we aerate we would need to increase the size of our tines and would therefore increase recovery time.

Our tentative schedule for the remainder of the season is as follows,

• August 24^th, Small Tine Greens Aeration
• Early October, Small Tine Greens Aeration
• October, Tee Aeration
• End of season, Deep Tine Aeration
• End of season, Mid Size Tine Aeration (If needed)

Surviving July and Easing into August

The end of July was hot and humid sending the golf course into survival mode as indicated by some off color grass and thinned out areas. The lack of rain during this time has really dried out the turf, but with irrigation and selective hand watering, we were able to keep the necessary areas alive. We have been taking it easy on our greens as much as possible to alleviate unnecessary stress on them. Our cultural practices have been kept at a minimum for this reason.

Irrigation on #8 Fairway

Hand Watering on #18 Green

The beginning of August has been a breath of fresh air. Cooler temperatures both day and night, lower humidity, plenty of sunshine and a couple of rain episodes. This has allowed the turf to come out of survival mode to begin recovery. We have been able to push the greens more and resume our cultural practices such as verticutting with a heavier topdressing. With fairway aeration approaching, the fairways should be healthy going into it and make for a quick recovery if the weather cooperates next week.

#4 Green Site

July Update

The next two weeks look like the longest warm/dry weather we may have this season. Over this time period we will be taking it easy on the turf, trying not to add too much extra stress. We will cut or roll the greens on a daily basis but not both. Also we will back off on our cultural programs of topdressing and verticutting until these extra heat stresses cool down. We will be hand watering greens as much as they need it so that we are only watering what is needed.

Morning sun at this time of year is very important for turf recovery. It is usually cool enough that photosynthesis is occurring compared to the heat of the day when the plant will shut down for survival. There are select areas on our greens that have little or restricted light in the morning and are therefore more stressed. We will be making sure these areas have the appropriate amounts of water, fertilizer and chemical to help fight off diseases. As the season progresses they will become stronger again and will be prepared for some good fall golf. 

#2 Green Early Morning

#10 Green Early Morning

In inspecting our green sites, our plan moving forward is to selectively prune and remove specific trees continuing this fall to help improve sunlight and air flow.