Spring Aerification

Some nice weather is finally upon us. The turf department has been taking full advantage of the sunshine and warm temperatures. On April 15/16 the greens were aerified with 1/2 inch, hollow tines at a depth of 1 inch. The spring time is a good opportunity to complete an aerification process because it can be done without interrupting play. In conjunction with pulling cores from the greens, a verticut was also done. Verticutting is a procedure in which the blades of the machine spin vertically to "slice" into the putting surface. This encourages new growth, removes excess organic matter (thatch) that lies beneath the turf. The final step in this process will be to topdress the greens with sand to fill in our aeration holes and to smooth out and any winter blemishes.

Intern Jake Martin, aerating #3 green

Spring is Here

Spring time is upon us and as you all know the snow has come and gone. Over the last couple weeks, the maintenance staff have been working diligently to clean up the golf course from any debris collected over the winter months. The greens have over wintered very well and are showing slight signs of growth as the soil temperatures continue to rise. We received a significant amount of rainfall in early April but the course has begun to dry up quite nicely. Last year by this time, the club was in full swing and many of you had played several rounds of golf. In March 2012, the average temperature was 6.1 degrees Celsius while this year, the average for March was -1.7 degrees Celsius. According to Environment Canada, the "normal" temperature average for our region during March is -0.9 degrees Celsius. Therefore this this year is much closer to the climate normals than last year. The two graphs below compare daily average temperatures for March 2012 and 2013.