Where Did the Summer Go?

It's hard to believe that as I am sitting here writing this that it is the last regular day of work for the season for all my summer students. Summer flew by just like it always seems to. I guess that just means that we are that busy around here! It was a great and successful summer though. We have accomplished a lot on the golf course and business is significantly up. 

Unfortunately it has been a while since my last post so I have a lot to update you on. The weather has overall been pretty great for us this summer. There was a lot of very warm weather and not a lot of rainy days. That being said; weather like that brings on its challenges. The turf experienced a lot of stress this summer from high temperatures and drying out. Localized dry spot was very common this summer. A localized dry spot is basically an area that can not be wet or is considered hydro-phobic. To deal with this condition we have a few tools. Most commonly we use a wetting agent which helps to alter the soil chemistry to either allow the soil to take in and hold water or push water through the soil profile. Another common procedure that we do is hand-watering. When we hand water we go out with a hose and soak down and puddle the dry area a few times to really help to push the water down and saturate the area. 

Examples of our localized dry spot

Bunker maintenance was one of our top priorities once our students had started. All greenside bunkers were edged again this season and 14 of these bunkers also had new sand added to them to improve sand quality and depths.

A freshly edged bunker

A bunker with new sand added to it

We did see the dreaded Take-all Patch disease that I am always talking about sporadically throughout the summer but it was a non-issue as we are so used to it now that our management program seems to be working very well.

Take-all Patch

This week we just recently completed our annual fall greens aeration. The greens are recovering nicely and should be putting great once again in the next couple days. 

A green being aerated

How the greens look after aeration

For the fall we have a lot of things planned. We will be aerating the tee boxes. We are planning to totally overseed all weak fairway areas once more with Alkaligrass. After we seed certain areas we will be putting ropes up to keep carts off of these areas. The ropes will help to keep traffic off of these areas and will as a result allow the new seed the chance to establish. We will be building and growing in our new bentgrass sod nursery. And then of course we will be performing our normal fall shut down procedures such as fungicide applications, irrigation blowout, fairway aeration, tarping, fencing, etc. 

We are hoping to have a very successful fall and hope that Mother Nature continues to be good to us to allow the golf season to keep going a little longer!

On a side note my wife and I are pleased to announce that on July 24th we welcomed our first child into the world. His name is William David Seibel. 

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

May Update

It's hard to believe that it is already May 9th as I am writing this but time is really flying by quickly very early in the season. We have definitely been very busy so far.

The golf course officially opened on April 17 this year for play. So far it has been a pretty good season as Mother Nature has been fairly nice to us given the time of year that it is. We had all the tarps removed from the greens on April 14 and would like to thank all our volunteers for coming out to help. The first cut on the greens took place on the 16th.

The first cut taking place on the greens

Since there was too much frost at the time of opening we were not able to pressure up our irrigation system yet, so a lot of tank watering took place to keep the greens happy. The irrigation system was turned on on April 21 and went as well as it typically does here. We had quite a few breaks again this year which is not an uncommon thing for us. So far we are up to 16 breaks this season.

Taking watering in progress

One of our irrigation breaks

We have started some of our fairway repairs already for this season. Our highschool students went around and filled most of the bare spots with topsoil to bring it back up to grade and then raked in some Alkaligrass to fill in these bare areas. This process will be taking place a few times this season as we are creating a seedbed and will keep seeding until the alkaligrass establishes well and the fairways are full again. Any of the larger areas that could not be spot seeded will be overseeded using a tractor and overseeder soon.

One of the reseeded areas

We have began our fertility and disease management programs just recently as the soil temperatures are now reaching acceptable levels.

Two exciting projects have also taken place at the club already this season. The old rotten patio wall at the clubhouse has been ripped out and replaced with a very nice block retaining wall. We would like to thank JJ Fischer, Geoff Charles and their crew for the work on it.

The new retaining wall

We have also dealt with some of our drainage issues from 18 green to 9 green. We have had a creekbed dug all the way from 18 green to 9 green and dug a pond in front of 9 green. The idea here is for all the water that stands around the clubhouse, 18 green, 1 tee, the putting green, driving range and 9 green to run into the creekbed and then be contained in the pond and as a result prevent most of it from running down 9 fairway. It will also help to dry up all those other areas that traditionally are very wet and unsightly. We would like to thank Kelly Brady, Jason Pederson and Streamline Oilfield Service for their work on this project. 

The pond infront of 9 green

An area of the creekbed

In the upcoming weeks we have a lot planned. We are hoping to solid tine the greens soon, overseed the larger bare areas with Alkaligrass, cleanup and reseeded the creekbed and pond excavation areas and continue with our regular course maintenance. We have accomplished a lot so far this season and by my next update I expect that we will have accomplished even more. 

Looking down hole 10 this week

It's Almost Time!

We are so close to the new golf season! Mother Nature has been pretty good to us overall this spring and we are definitely on track for an earlier opening than the past few seasons. My assistant and myself have been very busy the last little while in anticipation of the earlier start.

March started off with refinishing and repainting all course accessories. This job took a couple of weeks to complete and everything is now looking great once again.

Some of the finished accessories

Our new safety program was completed and is all ready for this years staff. This program is a little more in-depth than previous but is still very clear, effective and easy for our staff to follow.

Some of our safety materials being displayed for staff

We also took delivery on three new pieces of equipment in March which we were very excited about. We have a new Toro fairway mower and utility vehicle and a new John Deere bunker rake.

The new Toro equipment

The new John Deere bunker rake

My assistant has also been very busy freshening up the look of our maintenance facility. She has repainted all drywall surface in the building and has repainted all the doors and posts outside the building. We definitely have one of the best facilities in the province but work like this had never been performed on the building since it was constructed in the early 90's. This was long overdue and gives the building a much more professional image and shows how proud and fortunate we are to have such an excellent facility.

Some of the interior painting that was done

One of the overhead doors and posts that were repainted

We have also done our annual servicing that takes place in the pumphouse to ensure that this area of the course is ready to go for another season. At that time the pumps, piping, platform, etc were all given a fresh coat of paint to freshen things up and to help prevent rust. There had also been a leak in the ceiling of the pumphouse were the roof service hatch was located. We went up onto the roof and believe we located the problem and sealed it. So far things have been dry in the building since the work was done. 

The painting that was done in the pumphouse

We have also been out on the course frequently since the snow has been melting to check on the turf conditions, fix tarps and open up drainage routes to remove excessive water off of the course. So far it appears that things have wintered pretty well and we are optimistic that we can get off to a very successful start this season.

A view under the tarp on 18 green

Water flowing out of the valley after the culverts were opened up

We have now just started removing snowfence off of the greens. This work will be continuing for atleast another week. We will be having a couple of our regular staff members back to work for the season next week and snowfence removal from greens and tees will continue. Tasks like unwrapping signs, putting out benches and accessories, cleanup, etc will all begin to take place next week. We will try to keep the tarps on the greens as late as we can before opening, but if it becomes too difficult to keep them down in the wind and the temperatures are warm enough than they may come off a little earlier.  

Snowfence removed off of 17 green

We are not quite sure about an opening date yet as the course still needs to dry up and there is still quite a bit of frost in the ground so things are dependent upon Mother Nature at this point. I am optimistic that we will be out golfing earlier this year than the past few years though and I am excited to see everyone back out on the course and to see everyone again that I have not seen since the fall!

Hole 7 last summer

C'mon Spring!

Well if we want to trust the weather man then things are looking up for us. The extended forecast is looking really good and we are hoping for an early melt this year to get things going earlier than the last few years. 

A view of the next 14 days forecast

Since my last blog post I have been keeping pretty busy. Our new and improved safety program is almost complete and will be ready for when a lot of our staff is back in April. I was also in Calgary and San Antonio for Superintendent Association conferences and both were great. I picked up a lot of new information on new trends and practices within the turf industry and discovered many new products that could be beneficial to us. It was also a time to catch up and network with fellow superintendents and plan with local superintendents for projects that we will be working together on this summer.

Getting ready for an education session in San Antonio

March 1st also means the return of my Assistant Superintendent for the year and that also makes it seem as if the golf season is getting closer. She will be busy inside the shop until it is nice enough to be working outside. She will be using her time to paint and refurbish all the course accessories and if time allows after that then she will be focusing on the interior of our maintenance facility which will include painting of the walls and ceilings, floors, and doors and trim. Nothing has been done to the interior of the shop since it was first built in the early 90's so it is definitely due and one of the best and biggest maintenance facilities in the province is definitely deserving of that.

If Mother Nature co-operates with us like it looks like she will then we will be able to be outside before the end of the month. At that time snow fence removal and debris cleanup can all begin to take place.

We are very excited for the weather to improve and can not wait to get out onto the course and get the golf season going along with the golf course improvements!

Looking out towards 11 green

What's Happening in 2015

Well a new year is here and we are very excited for what 2015 will bring! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I hope 2015 has been great so far!

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

Early Winter Update

Things have continued to be fairly busy around the golf course even though the season is over and snow is on the ground. We have been busy indoors getting everything prepared for the 2015 golf season.

We completed all the reel grinding and repairs just before the end of December when my Assistant was done for the year and goes on winter break until March. All the reels are now back on the mowers and ready to do some cutting in 2015!

Some of our reels after being ground

Reels back on the mowers

I am mostly done all the equipment maintenance and repairs. I am hoping to be very close to being done by the end of this week before I go on my little bit of a Christmas break. The work done in this process is all the major service and lubrication work and then any repairs that need to be completed that were not done during the season. This has been a little bigger job than past years which makes sense as a large portion of our fleet is now 5 years old and coming off lease. As a result we will be keeping most of the equipment for another year but a few pieces that are starting to show their hours are being replaced for next year as the cost of upkeep would be greater than the value in keeping these pieces.

New steering rack installed on a Gator

Once I am back from my Christmas break I will quickly wrap up what equipment work still remains and then most of my work will shift to the office. I will be completing all our cultural and agronomic calendars and reworking some of our programs for 2015. Our employee safety and OH&S programs are going to be completely overhauled this winter also. And then ofcourse our general record keeping, IPM and maintenance programming needs to be gone through quickly and altered for 2015. 

One thing that has been going on outside is Mother Natures unpredictability. In the second half of November she finally supplied us with a nice snow cover and had the course looking pretty good to start the winter with some very ideal temperatures also. She then decided to warm things up here a little bit in December and it has resulted in the majority of our snow cover melting away. There are a few problems associated with this. First off, we need snow cover to protect the turf from the extreme colds and winds of winter so I am hopeful that she will give us a little more snow here soon to build up the insulation again. But the biggest issue with the melt is the formation of ice. As of right now the areas that I have checked on the course are seeming to be looking okay. There seems to be very little ice formation out there so I am expecting that we will be okay. It appears that most of the water that did form was able to drain off the green surfaces from under the tarps and the only ice that we are really seeing is around the edges of the snow drifts that remain. The ice that I am seeing in these areas does not seem to be very thick and it is also quite porous. Porous ice is what we want because basically the cloudy white appearance it has indicates the presence of air pockets within the ice. Basically this means that the exchange of fresh air can still take place and the turf can still breathe. Another positive thing that we have on our site is that our greens are not very old overall and our weedy grass population is not very high (Poa Annua). Poa Annua is a type of grass that naturally seeds from the presence of its seed within our soils. Poa Annua can be a very desirable turf type for golf courses but overall it is not very desirable in climates like ours. This is because it can not tolerate cold temperatures or ice cover very well. So basically our mostly pure bentgrass greens should be fine in the few areas of ice due to its cold hardiness and ability to survive under ice conditions for well over 100 days.

No ice formed under the snow on the greens

Porous ice where there is ice

I have seen a few pictures of courses from British Columbia to Manitoba that have not been as lucky as us and the ice formation is major. In this case the labor required to remove the ice is major, plus the added stress is terrible. So for the sake of my fellow superintendents I hope that most of us have avoided the ice and for the ones that have not I hope the removal process is quick and successful.

I will have another update for everyone sometime in January updating you about what has been going on at the course and the plans for the rest of the winter. Until then I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and a happy and healthy holiday season!

Hole 16 this past summer