Summer is Here!

Like every year it seems as if this season is once again flying by. Summer is now officially here and as of the end of this week the kids will be out of school for the year. This also means that as of next week we will be operating with full staff and we will really be able to start accomplishing a lot on the course over the next few months. 

Since my last post we have been a pretty busy operation. We solid tine aerated the greens in the middle of May and they were able to recover from this procedure very quickly. We did this to help stimulate growth and improve water, air, and nutrient infiltration.

Aeration being performed

As always we have been continuing to manage and deal with the Take-all Patch disease that we see on our greens every year but we have been on top of it all season. Our program for control seems to be working great and we have not suffered any turf loss or decline from it.

Early infection Take-all Patch on one of our greens

Irrigation has been an ongoing problem as we are now well over 30 breaks for the season but we have managed to keep up with them and have always been able to operate our system quite efficiently and supply the water to the areas that need it.

One of our irrigation problems we've had to repair

We have been continuing to work to improve our fairway conditioning. At the end of April as previously mentioned we performed some Alkaligrass spot seeding across the entire course and have seen a good response from this procedure. We also followed up with an overseed of the weak areas with Alkaligrass at the end of May and will be continuing to perform these jobs throughout this season to continue to create a seed bed and to establish a desirable turf species in place of the poor alkali and bare fairway conditions.

An alkali area that we overseeded

We also performed an entire course (fairways and rough) fertilizer application early in June and this has helped to really colour things up and thicken up the turf areas as well.

Our focus over the next month will now be on our annual bunker maintenance (edging and topping up with sand), irrigation inefficiency repairs and continuing to address our poorer fairway conditions.

I would like to encourage anyone that uses the driving range to try to follow the below pictures divot method when using the driving range tee this year as excessive wear is starting to be an issue.

I would also like to encourage any of you to never be afraid to come and find me and ask any questions or offer any opinions that you may have regarding the course to me. I am always around the course or even a message left at the clubhouse or park office for me to contact you would be great. We always want your feedback and are always looking to improve your experience at the golf course.

 15 green looking towards 17