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.

Winter Tree Work

Peter Bassin removing a dead tree on #9

During the last three months, extensive tree work has been completed throughout the entire golf course. The creek which divides the primary and secondary fairway on #1 has been cleaned up. Small undesirable shrubbery was removed to allow water to flow more freely through the ditch while improving the creek's appearance, playability and drainage attributes.

Eight poplars of poor form and varying degrees of health were removed to the right of #4 green allowing this area to be maintained as rough instead of the fescue  previously in this area.

Clean up was also done between the tee deck's of #5 and #12 where several trees were brought down during the windstorms of 2011. This winter provided the best opportunity to clean up the broken Willows, uprooted Manitoba Maples, decling Ash trees as well as remove most of the Buckthorn .  These areas will fill in with native vegetation and still provide suitable areas for wildlife that is on the property.

The area along the left of #9 contained many dangerous, downed and rotten damaged trees which needed to be removed to both clean the area up, but more importantly to increase airflow from the west to the green at 9. Increased airflow and sunlight corridors will help the greens situated in less than ideal growing environments be much healthier. Buckthorm along with selected undergrowth of undesirable species will allow the larger dominant native trees to thrive and also improve the health of the trees in that area. A very large Sugar Maple (Acer Saccharum) and Ash (Fraxinus spp.) tree behind #9 were also removed which will greatly improve morning sunlight to this green. This decision was made as part of a tree management plan to improve sunlight exposure on certain putting greens and based off of numerous past reports from the USGA and SJM Aboriculture Services defining problem areas. Sunlight is a key ingredient in the photosynthesis process and will encourage healthy turfgrass. Similar work was done to the right and left of #17 fairway and to the left of #18 fairway. The thinning of small underbrush and removal of trees which have been uprooted, will improve airflow. It will also aid in playability as more shots can potentially be played from these wooded areas helping pace of play.
White pines to the immediate right of #12 green have been removed also as they were negatively impacting the green due to reduced sunlight.  Low growing multi-stem Serviceberries (Amelanchier Canadensis), Ornamental Pear  and Eastern Redbuds (Cercis Canadensis) will be planted in this area and will provide a stunning visual backdrop with no impact to morning sunlight. The photo below paints a good picture as to why these pine trees were disrupting sunlight exposure to #12 green. 

This photo was taken standing on #12 green using the Sun Seeker App . It illustrates where the sun will be at a certain time and date. In this case we chose July 15, 2013 at 11:55am.  The image indicates where the sun will be at 6am, 7am, 8am and 9am. As you can see, this portion of the green does not receive sunlight until after 9am. In the summer time the turf deals with a lot of stress, especially on putting greens and morning sunlight is a must for creeping bentgrass to succeed! Providing the opportunity for maximum sunlight will allow the plant to maximize to its full "photosynthesis potential." A plant photosynthesizing at 7 am will be much healthier and able to withstand stresses than a plant that does not begin the photosyntesis process until 9am or later


White Pines (Pinus Strobus) were selectively removed from behind #13 green also in the attempt to improve sunlight as these trees have also been identified as causing shade and having detrimental affects on turf quality.  Flowering dogwoods and Eastern Redbuds will planted here also as flowering understory trees.   All tree removals were completed in compliance with the tree management plan and completed under a "good forestry practices" permit issued from the City of Kitchener



Graham removing declining ash tree

Another obvious change in scenery is the putting green. Six ash trees were removed from the area surrounding the green. To the left is a photo of the ash tree being removed that once stood to the north east of the putting green. During the summer of 2012, the putting green did not perform to Deer Ridge Golf Club's standards. The lack of sunlight did not allow the turf to reach its full "photosynthesis potential" and therefore the green could not thrive. The removal of these ash trees will allow for maximum morning sunlight to reach the putting green. Not only was this tree shading the green, it was also rotten within, as you can see in the picture to the left.

We look forward to seeing everyone on the course very soon. 

Welcome to our new turf maintenance blog!