I am now done all equipment repair work other than replacing the starter in our old John Deere 950 tractor as I am just waiting on parts. So my focus is now switching to my office for most of the rest of the winter. I will be focusing on maintenance and cultural programming, safety and pesticide programs, employee handbooks. etc.
The old starter off the tractor
I will be in Calgary the first week in February to attend the 2015 Canadian International Turfgrass Conference & Trade Show hosted by the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association and then I will be in San Antonio the final week of February to attend the 2015 Golf Industry Show hosted by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Both of these events will be great opportunities for me to expand my knowledge, network and see all the new products and trends to improve our golf course in the future.
Sticking with the New Years trend I am going to quickly touch on a few of the projects we have planned for the golf course in 2015 other than the regular maintenance that commonly takes place. We will be continuing to upgrade our irrigation system as we will be swapping out more older sprinkler heads for newer ones. We also have quite a bit of electrical work that needs to be done with the irrigation system that will fix some automation issues.
Spot seeding and sodding work will be taking place on the fairways this season. We have a few fairways that have a few major turf issues and we will be addressing these. We will mainly be replacing these weak areas with a combination of Alkaligrass and a typical Kentucky Bluegrass fairway blend. Most of our fairways problems are a result of high salt levels and over saturation of water. Blending our fairway mix with the Alkaligrass will help to allow establishment giving the wide range of soil conditions that we see on the course. If soil conditions are ideal then the normal Bluegrass mix will establish and take place in that area. But if salt levels are high and the area is traditionally a little wetter than the Alkaligrass will establish as it can tolerate high moisture and salt levels in the areas that the Bluegrass has never been happy. The Alkaligrass is a little "poofier" but still plays very well and it will have an overall positive impact on the playability of the course. We are choosing to switch to the Alkaligrass at this point as it economically is the best choice for our course. Ideally we would come in and excavate a few of the high salt soil areas and replace it with a new growing medium but that is not a viable option for us right now. As stated earlier anyways this is not a concern to us as the Alkaligrass forms a very nice playing surface anyways. Our soil conditions are starting to improve in even the worst areas as a result of soil testing and now giving the soil the nutrients it actually wants, plus cutting back on the amount of irrigation water applied to the fairways has been very helpful as it is my belief that far too much water was being applied in the past. Unfortunately though no matter what our native soils are high in salt and the amount of rain we have received the past few seasons has been extremely high, so a slight change in turf type in the poor areas is definitely needed.
Salt causing turf decline on a golf course
(www.salinitymanagement.org/Salinity%20Management%20Guide/sp/sp_6e.html)
We will also be improving more of our poorly draining areas this season as time allows in conjunction with the fairway seeding work as one will not work without the other. Continuing to dry up a few of the typically wetter areas will have a major positive impact on the playability of the course and turf conditions. All of this fairway work is a major job and is not something that we will realistically finish this season so the work will be ongoing. Our fairways are without a doubt our largest problem that remains on the course so we will be trying to focus on them as much as possible to bring them up to a level equal with the rest of the course.
Standing water resulting in cart damage and poor conditions
Improvements to cartpaths and bunkers will also be ongoing. Bunker work will include things like topping up or replacing sand and drainage work.
Previous bunker repair
It will certainly be another very busy year for us and another year where you can expect to see a huge improvement in our golf course. We have been able to accomplish a lot these past few seasons but we still have a long way to go. I am confident though that we are well on track and we will be right up there with the elite in this province very soon as we are already there in some areas.
Practice hole #3
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