May 15 Update

Hey folks.

As of Tuesday this week we have officially set our opening date as May 20.  Our original target was earlier but the weather just hasn't been co-operating.  If your curious as to what metrics we use to determine the opening date, I hope this blog post will answer some of your questions.

There are a number of factors that influence the decision to open the golf course, with soil temperatures probably being the most important.  As the soil temperatures increase plants begin the process of breaking dormancy, some plants earlier than others. Things like hostas, crocus and forsythia are often the first to begin activity, while perennials like ferns, wisteria and hydrangeas usually become active later in the spring.

Bent grass, the turf species that we have seeded the green to, generally becomes active around 12 to 15 degrees, but doesn't really take off until the soil reaches 17 to 20 degrees Celsius. 

The soil temperature on Number Seven Green from Thursday May 14.

So how does that effect the opening? Its about the regenerative processes of the plant.  Playing golf and all the things that go with the sport causes damage to the turf that under normal growing conditions can be handled by the plants.  In the spring when the plants are not fully active and somewhat tender the damage can set the plants back.

The other factor is really important is damage recovery.  With the poor winters we have had in the past three years, its taken longer for the turf to recover.  This obviously reduces our eagerness to open quickly.

This spring has been a bit of an outlier.   We had a very warm, dry stretch in late April which forced us to start up the irrigation, followed by snow and cold weather returning in May.  Fortunately the  warm weather allowed for the plants to begin breaking dormancy, but the cold May so far has arrested any growth at all.   My expectations is that the weather over the next few days will push the turf to where we can see it healthy enough t play on.  Thursday through Sunday look to be good growing days with the night time temperature above freezing, allowing us to look, with some confidence, to opening on Wednesday.

Number 13 as of Thursday

Number 12 as of Thursday

Number 11 as of Thursday

The course conditions are pretty good right now.  11, 12 ad 13 greens are still the worst off from the winter, but with a bit warmth they should return quickly. All weak spots have been seeded, and Thursday this week we will have completed our second cut.   The tees are not great, with damage to 1, 2, 4, 13, 14, and 18.  All of these have been seeded and we are waiting for the recovery process to begin when the weather warms up. 

Please remember that when we open the course will not be in summer condition.  As of  last Monday we still had snow on the course. Between the slow spring and limited staff we haven't been able to bring the course up to standard but given a few nice days and the staff returning now things should improve quickly.

As with most of the current things in our lives there will be some change to the way the golf course functions.  Most of which will be small inconveniences, that shouldn't make a great difference to the game, but will help to keep the staff and the clients safe.  To limit the contact points among both staff and clients the ball washers, club washers, divot boxes, benches and garbage cans will be removed from the course.   

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At the end of the ninth hole and the 18th hole 2 garbage and 2 recycling containers will be available for use.  Please keep you garbage with you and deposit it into the correct container.

We will also be removing any of the bunker rakes from the course as they are also a shared object that could transmit the Covid-19 virus.  We will be increasing the number of times the traps are raked per week to help maintain the traps.  Please smooth out the sand as best as possible with either your foot or club until its possible to return the rakes.

We would also ask that you not touch or remove the flag from the hole. We have created a plug that fits into the using drainage caps that allow water to flow through the cup. 

The current cup system.

 It will allow your ball to drop partial into the hole and is designed to not allow golfers to reach into the cup.  I know this is not ideal, and perhaps the biggest inconvenience, but it's this way to reduce interaction.  Here's a video of me putting into the cup.

For a period of time the carts will be cart path only. This is to reduce traffic on the fairways during the time when we are seeding and recovering the turf.  When the carts are allow on the turf they will be four per tee time.  Please do your best to not drive on the fairways, or in any weak areas that are process of regrowing.  This is not a rule but rather an ask, as the increased traffic will surly cause problems. Good Luck, stay safe and see you out there.

  

May 1 Update

Hey folks!

Great news from the government this last Friday about the lessening restrictions and the our ability to open in a limited capacity.  If the weather cooperates we should have the course open by mid may in a reasonable shape.  Up until now we have been running with a light crew. Aside from me and Mike our Mechanic working full time, we had also had Assistant Superintendent Lincoln and Lead Operator Vaughn working part time.  Obviously the uncertainty of the opening and trying to maintain social distance had left us in a state of limbo so the nod from the government came a good time.  On Monday of next week we will be bringing more staff in and, with some certainty, continue to prep the course for play this summer.

Since the my last post early April, the temperatures have been slow to rise.  By comparison the weather was actually better in late April last year then this year.  However with less damage, its clear that conditions certainly be miles ahead of 2019.

As far as the greens conditions its looks like 11, 12 and 13 took the brunt of the damage from the winter.  There are some other areas  on the greens that have suffered but the most wide spread were the North facing greens where  the snow and ice didn't melt completely.  In anticipation of some ice damage we purchased some special seeding heads that attach to our 3250 Toro Triplex.  Here is a video of its simplicity.

These units poke holes and seed at the same time, replacing the less efficient and time consuming method we used last year.  As of today we have seeded roughly 30,000 square feet on the greens.

The soil temperatures are approaching the growth potential and the hope is that the weather improves this weekend to start the physiological process of germination.  The above photos show the difference of the temperatures at a six inch depth, 0.3 degrees Celsius and at the surface, 20 degrees Celsius.  These photos were taken on Monday and since then the six inch depth has increased to roughly 7 degrees.  The soil is a great insulator so as the subsurface temps rise they generally don't fluctuate too much in a short period and retain what ever gains they have made.  As we get warmer days the soil temps will continue to rise and the turf will begin to function.

After getting the seed out we want to protect it from the elements.  The next step is top dressing heavily to cover the seed.  Here's a video of that process. The video is a bit short as blogger would only let me upload so much, but you get the idea.  This is 13 green.

The last item we need at this point is water.  This has been a very dry cold April.  Very little precipitation as compared to the historical average.  On Monday we charged the irrigation system to water the greens, which were in the dire need of moisture.  Lincoln and I pressurized the system and are happy to report we had very little issue with it.  There was a leak on 12 green but we new some thing was leaking there last year and it finally let go with the initial pressurization.

Here's Lincoln mid repair on 12.  Vertical social distancing.

We have also began repairs on the fairways, aerating and seeding the worst ones first.  Mike the Mechanic chipped in and drove the aerator on 18, our worst hit fairway.

Similar to the process on the greens, we aerate, seed and break up the cores to cover the seed.  As the soil temps rise and the rain starts the seed will begin to germinate as well.

We have also been busy repairing the damage that occurred when removing the snow on the greens.  Lincoln replaced the damaged areas on the greens with plugs from the Nursery.

In a few weeks when the growth really begins these will be hardly noticeable.

We also took advantage of the dry weather to improve some drainage areas on the course.  Number 12 is a problem area as all the water drains from the wood on the right side of the hole out into the fairway during the winter.  This open drain will capture the surface water and in the future we will add stone and pipe to complete the project.

You can see the straw colored turf on the fairway where the ice has damaged the plants

 The other area we have worked on was number 13, where the drain from 18 spills out.  by redirecting the water to a catch basin we should reduce the run off into the cart path and fairway.

Here's a freshly first mowed first green!

When the turf is actively growing and has the strength to withstand play we will open the golf course.  There will be some differences in regards to way that the game is played but we intend to present the best conditions possible.  Please bare with the regulations as we are very fortunate to be able to continue to play while other sports are on hold. Stay tuned!

April Update

Hey Folks!

I hope everyone is healthy and keeping safe! This post will be a little bit lengthy, but with the current quarantine restrictions I thought maybe I could bring a bit of the golf course into your six foot bubble. I'm going to try and detail some of the events from the winter right up to the current situation.

The health of the greens in the spring time often depends on how the winter set up.   If prolonged, ice coverage can cause damage to the turf by creating an anoxic environment.   Ice can create air tight layers that do not allow gas exchange. Similar to humans in an air tight room, eventually you would use up all the oxygen and be forced to breath the Carbon Dioxide you had expelled.  Turf suffers the same fate, but reverse the CO2 and O2.  This is a generalized explanation but for the sake of simplicity, ice coverage over three months is bad. The 2018/19 winter conditions developed from a rain storm in December that partial melted the existing snow and then formed thick flats of ice in the low surfaces of most of the greens.  The results were devastating.

Here is a link to last years post about the spring conditions. Click Here

The spring to 2019 was pretty close to the worst conditions I have ever seen and I had thought such devastation was unlikely to be repeated.

By late fall 2019 I thought Mother Nature was going to repeat herself.

Ice one the green, November 2019

Ice on 18 fairway, November 2019

Through rain and snow events we had about three inches of ice covering most of the golf course. We took some steps to reduce the coverage as much as possible.  These included clearing the snow from the greens with the loader and then running a tow behind aerator to fracture the ice and create air pockets.

I applied black sand to the ice to aid in melting and hoped the weather would be sunny enough to clear the ice.  Remember, over 90 days of coverage is bad, so I would be concerned if we had ice into April as we did in 2018/19. Fortunately, Mother Nature helped us out and it rained for about three days, melting most of the problem areas. There were still some small pockets of ice where the snow hadn't completely melted but I was confident that the majority of the turf was exposed and we would be OK if the winter wasn't protracted. 

In February 2020 I returned to work from the winter break and began by taking samples from the areas ice typically forms on the greens.

By sampling this early we are able to tell if or when damage has occurred.  If the February plugs are not healthy then I know we are in big trouble.   Bare in mind that is a very small sample of a very large area and not always indicative of the actual situation. To reduce some of the uncertainty I usually pull samples from some of the worst hit areas from years prior. These are from 17, 16 and 14 green which took a beating last year. After a few days in the shop the plugs warmed up and looked great.

In mid March I began blowing the snow and ice off the greens.  The snow this year had multiple layers of thick ice embedded at different heights.  These can be attributed to the melts and rain storms that occurred during the winter.

Ice layer on 11 green, March 2020

 By  breaking these layers and removing the material it exposes the surface of the green and any ice that might have formed. 

Clearing 16 green, March 2020

Using the tractor and the snowblower it takes about two weeks to cut a path to the greens and clear them.  I try to time the removal for late March (which is really difficult given the latest winters) when the temperatures are typically warmer and the exposed ice is removed quickly.

Surface ice on 11 green, 2020

Clearing 3 Green, March 2020

 I started clearing the greens from the shop and worked my way through out the course.  The first one cleared was number 14. Within a few days the layer of ice on the green had melted and just a few drifts remained.  The last greens finished were 12 and 13 due to the difficulty in getting to them.
 

Number 17, Match 2020

Number 17, 2020

Number 15, 2020

14 green a few days after the ice had melted, March 2020

Even though I take the utmost care with the tractor, the physical removal of the snow and ice is not without the potential for damage.  Occasionally I break through in the soft spots of ice, usually later in the day when the sun is out and the ice is beginning to weaken. Given the option of certainly having to repair these small areas versus the option of waiting to see how the greens do naturally, the choice is obvious.  These area will be plugged out from our Nursery as the spring progresses.

Number 14 damage from the bucket on the loader.

This is 15 green early March morning, 2020.  I had cleared the day before and the ice had melted and reformed over night.  

Number 15, same day as before, melting much improved.

If ranking winters from good or bad, I would consider the 2019/2020 to be average, from the turf perspective.  Despite our best efforts to mitigate the ice damage we still have some areas where we will have to spend some time in repair mode. Earlier this week we has some great weather for melting and a majority of snow had naturally receded. I was able to better ascertain the damage on the golf course to a wider scale.  For the most part there is a small amount of damage on the greens,  where the snow didn't completely melt in early December 2019.  12 and 13 greens showed to have the most localized ice damage and its seems unlikely any temporary greens will be necessary.  To quantify the damage, we are looking at about 5k square feet of damage versus the 70k from the 2018/2019 season.

The center swale on 12 green, the turf inside the yellow line is definitely in trouble, April 2020 

Number 17 green, small patches of ice damage should be recoverable fairly quickly, April 2020

I have taken further samples from the weak areas and placed them in the shop to warm up.  Its only been a day but stay tuned as to their development.  Here a few pictures of the the greens that look good.

Number 16 April 9, 2020

Number 8, April 9, 2020

Number 18, late March 2020

Number 11, April 6, 2020.  The black colour is the the sand we use to melt the ice, not decaying turf.

  Last fall we added a fungicide application for the fairways to our winterization program and have been seeing great results.   The product reduces the effect of winter disease and thereby gives the plant a jump into the spring.  Here are two examples of the results. 

Number 13, April 2020.  The areas to the left of the red line are treated.

Number 15, April 2020. The areas to the right of the red line have been treated.

 That brings us up to date as to the course conditions. If you have any questions about the course or our procedures don't hesitate to contact me.  My twitter account is @westhillssuper, you can email me at whgmain@gmail.com or comment on this blog. I look forward to hearing from you.

As the state of emergency continues we are working with a skeleton crew of staff members to minimize the the transmission of the Covid-19 virus.  We will continue to keep the staff safe and the golf course in living order so that when this ends, and it will, we can get back to the great game of golf.
Please take of yourselves, each other and stay tuned.