June Rolls On

This past week has been pretty routine for the K Country turf care team. We have been busy keeping on track with our cultural and fertility programs as well as picking away at a few course improvement projects. The HOC on greens was dropped this week to summer playing heights to ensure we meet our goal of having green speeds around 9.5 on the stimpmeter. Along with daily cutting we incorporate a vibratory roll to each course every other day, to ensure we have smooth putting surfaces. The past week we have had some Fusarium pop up on most of our putting surfaces and it got to the point where we needed to put down an application of Heritage to keep it from spreading.


The crew has been busy hiking and white water rafting this past week. Plans have been set for having a BBQ on Canada Day and paintballing the following Friday. We have a very social crew that has definitely taken advantage of the area as well as the local establishment Woody’s. It is pretty impressive to see the staff on time and lively, day in and day out with very little sleep. While I have to be in bed by 10 in order to function the next day. They definitely make me feel old, but keep me young at the same time as many of them have energetic personalities. There are days when I shake my head, but overall they leave me smiling after our end of day meeting.

Safe travels to our turf care team member Lida, who has left us to pursue her career in law back home in England. She was a great team member who will be missed by all, especially her great sense of humour.

Finally I would like to say good luck to the courses all across the prairies that are dealing with flood waters and their affects. I have heard stories of clubhouses having 3 to 4 feet of water in them, golf courses 75 percent underwater and greens having faults in them due to the ground below them starting to slough away. We have been very lucky at Kananaskis as we have had minimal rain and basically only half a day of disruption in mowing. The only issue we have had to deal with is an abundance of bears on the property. We have conservation officers and Karelian bear dogs on the golf course on a daily basis trying to push the bears off. The golf course is home to many elk calves which are a favourite prey for the grizzly bears in the area, which can lead to some interesting situations.




Karelian Bear Dogs



Clayton and Shane getting ready to fertilize the Upper Putter

June Photo Montage

Steady as She Goes

It's hard to believe we are already half way through June, and just finally getting into our maintenance routines. Calvin has been busy on the sprayer putting down a foliar application of fertilizer followed by Primo and a wetting agent. As well our fairway and rough fertilizer application for the spring has been completed, so we are somewhat caught up in our cultural and fertility programs.

Sprinkler heads continue to heave, which has kept Marty and Shane relatively busy these last couple of weeks. We are also still finding areas of the irrigation system to still have ice in the lines, which means we are not fully operational head wise. I have already sent the crew home today as we have probably accumulated around two inches of rain since this morning and with a cool temperature of 4 degrees the snow line up on Mount Kidd is not to far above the golf course.



Snow line above the golf course

The golf course is definitely starting to improve on a daily basis. I give full credit to our hard working turf care team as their dedication and pride in the golf course is starting to reflect in the conditioning of the golf course. Coming into the season most of our team had no golf course experience and I am very proud of their devlopment individually, but also as a team. This extends beyond the golf course as we have done a trail ride, numerous hikes, as well as having a white water rafting and paintball trip planned for the next two weeks. Looking over the list of our "Blue Hard Hat" winners we have a very international group of recipents that include a Welshman, a German, an Englishwoman, and finally a Canadian. I feel very priviledged to be able to work with such a great group of individuals; as well they have definitely helped me understand a numerous array of accents. When you have two Aussies, an Irishman, a Spaniard, a Welshman, and finally an East Coaster with a radio on any given day, it can lead to many communication issues. We are starting to understand everyone's slang and the Aussies are learning how to speak a little slower, so we are making progress. Apperently in Australia you turn a valve anti-clockwise to open it up. Finally I would like to thank my foreman James Bryce for stepping up and providing some much needed leadership in Trent's absence the last two weeks. He has made my job easier the last two weeks trying to manage both courses and the staff, especially when you spend half a day dealing with bears.

Trent have a safe trip back to Kananaskis, and I think it is only fair that after two weeks away from the course that you get back into the swing of things right away and work my weekend.

Bears in the bush!

Well the last week has been very productive for turf care.Training is in full swing so everyone is learning new tasks on a daily basis which keeps me on my toes with quality control. As well we completed a double verticut on all greens with a medium topdress, followed up by our first foliar spray application on greens. Shane and Clayton are busy putting the final touches of our fairway and rough granular application, and the turf is starting to grow. I am happy with how the course is looking and playing at the moment but we will continue to do small projects to improve the course.

The bears in the area are becoming very active and we have many travelling through the course. We have yet to see any females with cubs yet, but I think it will only be a matter of time. There have also been sightings of a cow and calf moose on the course as well as Elk. Everyday is always a little different and just when you think you can head back to the office to do some paperwork, something else comes up.



Verticut on Thursday


The golf course has came up lucky the last week in regards to precipitation. We have had the odd rain storm roll through the last week, but we have not accumulated anymore than an inch total. Some of the courses to the West of us have not been so lucky as it seems like they are being hit with massive accumulations of rain every other day. I would imagine they are getting sick of setting out sandbags and fixing washed out bunkers.

Finally I would like to send out my condolences to Terry our mechanic and Trent my fellow assistant in regards to sudden losses in their families. Hopefully you guys return safely in the next week from Whitehorse and Australia. As well good luck to those courses back at home and in Calgary that are still dealing with some major flooding. The Kananaskis River is starting to show signs of mountain run-off this past week, which only means more water down stream. As you can see below we still have plenty of room for the river to rise until there is any concern of flooding.

The Kananaskis River on June 12th



Elk calf



Calvin spraying



Back on Track

Technology is pretty cool, I am currently doing up this post while heading back to Regina for a wedding. We definitely had an interesting week with the course receiving around a foot of snow and closing the course for 4 days. We are now back in action trying to finalize our irrigation system run through and fertilization of our fairways and rough. As well 95 percent of our staff are new this season so we are busy training everyone all the different tasks that must be completed on the golf course. I am very happy with the crews progress as many of them have no golf course experience. Everyone is coming into their own and showing their strengths, which will in turn help us get into a good routine.

We are starting to see more and more animal activity in the area, with a couple of new elk calves being born in the area. We have not had any bears on the course during the day but they have been passing through the area so it will only be a matter of time before we start dealing with them. The majority of the elk have moved off the course, mainly due to the irrigation cycles that keep them on their toes at night. We still get the occasional elk damage to our greens which can take considerable time to repair, but thats just another issue to deal with on a mountain golf course.

Everyone have a great weekend.