The tarps are off!

After three days of attacking these tarps and bubble rap, we have completed removing 30 tarps from our greens, as well as the bubble rap underneath! We started on Saturday, and they were all eventually pulled off on Monday!

A special mention goes to our team, who worked tirelessly for three days of popping nails, pulling tarps, pulling out staples and rolling up the bubble rap, you guys and girls certainly picked it up very fast and the ship ran quite smoothly all the way through, well done!

All the greens are now exposed, and are looking good! With no snow mould to report, and minimal ice damage, a great season ahead is forecasted for our greens! With the warm weather forecasted this week and in the future (wishful thinking!), the golf course is slowly looking like a golf course once again!

It is certainly starting to get very busy around here, with more and more staff arriving each week, including staff from other departments, we will soon have close to, or more than 50 staff working on getting the golf course open! The future looks good, and lets hope we get some warm weather, before we know it, it will be opening day!

Finally found some turf!

2 Kidd Green

Well after a nice break yesterday we got back at it today. It was the first time the crew has done something other than clear snow since they have been on staff, so it was a welcome change. We use impermeable tarps, bubble wrap, and landscape edging on over 30 of our greens, so with seasonal temps on the way it is important we remove them asap to prevent turf damage . The crew enjoyed the change of task and picked it up very quickly. This resulted in us finishing 8 greens today which puts us on pace to be finished by mid week. The staff has been very resilient as they have been putting in 10 or 11 hour days the last two weeks, and show no signs of losing motivation. It was nice to see some nice healthy turf today, and reaffirmed the hard work that everyone has put in. We are still a long way from opening, but its a step in the right direction. I hope everyone has a great Easter Sunday, and good luck to all those guys trying to get their courses open for next weekend.

2 Kidd Green

17 Lorette Green

April 17th Update

Well a common theme this spring has been the presence of snow storms rolling through the area every other day it seems like. Yesterday was no different, our crew went out to continue clearing greens and it started to snow, so we shut it down. The crew will continue to grow over the next few weeks, as we will be adding staff from other departments to help whip the golf course into shape once the snow starts to disappear. We are scheduled to aerate greens and fairways this week, with no grass visible on the course it is a safe bet we might be pushing that back a few weeks. Hopefully this week we will be able to remove bubble wrap from afew greens, but that will depend on mother nature.

I would like to congratulate Trent Luckhurst on his promotion to 2nd Assistant Superintendent this past week. Trent and myself have been working side by side the last few weeks managing the staff, and he has been a great help keeping things running smoothly. Trent who hails from Australia is a returning staff member from last season who has a strong base of turfgrass experience as well as education. I look forward to having him on our management team and hearing his ideas on how to make this season great.

Getting Close

My Truck behind 6 Kidd green

After the last month of clearing greens, sometimes two or three times over we are almost ready to start looking up tarps and removing the bubble wrap. I have taken every opportunity to take a look at most of the greens through afew new holes we have put in the tarps removing snow, and everything looks pretty solid. We have less than a handful of greens to finish clearing and then afew greens that have received some new snow that we must tidy up as well. The bobcat and the polar trac have been busy clearing all the tees which we hope to have completed early next week. The crew has had a long week of hard work and I am proud of how everyone has kept their spirits up and worked as a team. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and just hope there is no new snow on its way this weekend. Good luck to everyone else battling snow and water trying to get their respected courses open. We were lucky for once and did not get the dump of snow Calgary received the other day, but as I look out of my office it is snowing as I type this.

Have a great weekend
Mitch

Steady as she goes

We are continuing to make progress on the snow removal from our greens and tees. We have brought in a Toro polar trac to aid the bobcat in snow removal from our tee decks and fairways eventually. Our plan is to have all the greens cleared off by the end of the week and hopefully have the tarps off by Good Friday. I would like to wish my friends over at the Wascana Country Club in Regina good luck as they battle some intense flooding. Hopefully all the hard work that was put in over the last few years renovating the 9th and 10th fairways will not be lost. Above is a picture of the 9th fairway at the Wascana Country Club, I would take snow over flooding anyday. As well thanks for everyone for checking out our blog, we are over 1000 views and I know I haven't checked out the site 1000 times so afew people are checking in from time to time.

Well I spent the day on the couch watching the final round at the Masters and it did not disappoint. The course was in amazing shape as always, and there was great compeition right to very end. I am definitely itching to get out on the course, but I have a feeling we are at least 5 weeks away from opening. The turf care team is busy removing snow from all the tarped greens in anticipation of the temperatures rising and the necessity to remove the covers from greens to prevent any damage. Things look great under the tarps and we want to keep it that way. I am very happy with the work ethic our team has displayed this last week, we will continue to push through clearing the greens on the Mount Kidd course and with a little help with mother nature we should meet our goal in the next week or two. We spent the entire day yesterday working on 14 Kidd green removing the 3 to 4 feet of snow that covered it. Hopefully we only have afew greens like that left. I have decided to get a bit creative and make a slide show of what we have been up to the last two weeks.

A Great Start

 Well my prediction ended up being dead wrong. The first few days seemed to be a warm up for Wednesday. The crew came into work and pounded it out for almost 10 hours removing snow from greens with shovels. Our team has accomplished a tonne over the last week and that is only because of the strong work ethic everyone has displayed since arriving to join our team. The massive dump of snow (45 cm) that we woke up to this morning will set us back a bit, but I have no doubt in my mind we will be able to get back on track and continue to push to get all 40 greens cleared of snow. Having a great bunch of individuals who work as a team and stay motivated, makes my job that much easier. It has been interesting to see everyone come together from all over the globe and develop the strong team mentality that is going to be necessary for our turf care team to be successful over the season.

After the Storm

Well over the weekend we received another big dump of snow, just like the rest of the area. It definitely set us back a bit, but I was surprised how fast the snow started to dissipate last few days. As well our first wave of staff arrived over the weekend, many of them wondering if there truly is a golf course under all the snow. We had a awesome first day with all the staff putting in a great effort on the shovels breaking up the snow for the snowblowers on the greens located on the back nine of  the Lorette course. I am lucky to have Trent Luckhurst working along side as a foreman managing the other team. I don't expect an Aussie to have much experience in snow removal, but he did a great job looking after his team with his scarf wrapped around his neck. It will be interesting to see if we can continue our pace over the next few weeks, as I anticipate I might find some sore bodies in the morning.