Grounds Update for May 15th

Now that the season is underway, I am going to attempt to provide regular bi-weekly updates on what is happening on the golf course and any other important information on conditions or specialty maintenance items.

The greens are very healthy this spring and very dense with bentgrass turf.  Green speeds will gradually increase over the next couple of weeks as mowing heights are lowered and sand topdressing is applied.  The greens are becoming firm and smoother each day.

Ball marks

We've all felt the excitement of hitting a great golf shot (and I've seen many here at DR) and rushing to our ball to line up that birdie putt.  Often though, that excitement keeps us from remembering that the shot has left an unsightly ball mark somewhere on the green.  Fixing ball marks and helping those who have forgotten to fix theirs, will go a long way in helping the green heal.  Ball marks fixed immediately and properly will heal in 2-3 days while poorly or improperly repaired ball marks may take up to 2-3 weeks before they recover fully.  Probably the most important part of fixing a ball mark properly and quickly, is to help prevent the invasion of Poa Annua into these perfect pockets in the green.  With Poa making up a large percentage of the grass in our fairways, any Poa seed that is tracked onto the putting surface by shoes and mowing equipment will quickly take hold in these voids and begin growing in these areas.  So........ please take the time to repair your ball mark and those of others to help keep our playing surfaces pristine. 

As far as managing Poa, our staff has been trained to identify and properly remove Poa from our greens and are now mandated that each greensmower takes the time to remove a minimum of 20 plants per green on a daily basis which will be the main defence against future invasion from this plant species. 

Short Game Practice Facility

The Short Game Area is taking shape quickly with drainage and irrigation now installed.  Although the wet spring delayed the start of the project by a couple of weeks, the construction is progressing well and is getting close to having the final grading/shaping being done.  This practice area has been designed to capture a variety of golf shots that are found on the golf course and features both shallow and deep sand bunkers along with deep bluegrass hollows and mounding.  There are significant bentgrass runoffs similar to those found on holes 4,6,11 and 18 and approximately 7,500 square feet of  subtle putting surface to practice long putts.  The sand for the greens is being imported this week and topsoil should be spread around by early next week with sodding to follow shortly thereafter.  If the weather continues to cooperate, sodding should be completed by Friday May 24th with an estimated opening date somewhere between the middle to end of June.


Miscellaneous Projects

The spring has provided some challenges in completing some projects along with balancing many of our routine spring maintenance items.  We are working diligently to try and wrap up some pressing areas prior to the beginning of the event season.

Putting Green

  With the trees removed around the upper putting green to improve sunlight, much of the remaining turf around the green was unsightly with Poa Annua, Perennial Ryegrass and Kentucky Bluegrass equally making up the turf rough.  It has now been sodded with 100% Kentucky Bluegrass and has greatly improved the appearance of our putting green area.

#17/18 Garden

Irrigation has been installed and planting soil is scheduled to be placed in these gardens within the next week with planting and mulching to follow.  This area once mature, will be similar to the planting gardens between 9 green and 10 tee and create a small visual barrier between these two holes.  Garden plantings will be sparse at first but will be splitting plants from around the property to help fill in these areas throughout the season.

Old Cartpaths

The old cartpath areas have been redone with topsoil and seeded with a turf that is better able to handle dry conditions as many of these areas are outside of our irrigation coverage.  These areas will remain roped off until the seed has been established and should not be used for cart traffic.

Wrap up

Finally I should thank Jeremy Hubbard (foreman/spray technician/ipm manager) for getting this blog page up and running and appreciate his efforts in developing this forum for communication.

I look forward to more seasonal weather and seeing everyone out enjoying the course.

Jason Winter, AGS

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!