End of 2012 season

Thursday 24 May 2012

The results can be so rewarding.

We've been officially open for two weeks now, and the turfcare team continues their hard work getting projects complete, repairing irrigation, and maintaining both golf courses for daily play.  Greens are  priority and we continue to resurface many areas that didn't fare well throughout the winter.  For our new greens, we laid big roll bentgrass and regular roll bluegrass for the collars.  A steady crew of 6 worked with our contractors in laying the bentgrass while larger crews came in to lay the bluegrass.  Work was completed efficiently as we strived to be ready for opening day.

I am quickly realising that the luxury of the Okanagan weather doesn't transition into and throughout the Rockies.  Though we've had stretches of nice days, our nighttime temps consistently drop to 0 degrees.  Tough to "green up", have a good catch on the overseed and germinate new shoots in some of our more challenging areas.  Benefits of a mountain golf course I guess?  

Today we needle tined one of our new greens and the results look terrific.  No pulling or tearing occurred, so we'll finish aerating the rest of the new greens tomorrow.  We're using Toro's new Pro core for our aeration purposes.  As much as I'd like to say that most of the great results were due to having a great operator, I have to give credit to the Pro core's efficiency, adjust ability and minimal disruption.  Keeping fingers crossed, I hope the rest of the aeration goes as smooth tomorrow.

Life of a turfgrass manager is long, busy and fast paced.  At times it feels that I am never in enough places at any given time throughout the day.  Train people here, get a team started there, quality control everywhere... etc.  However, the results of a great product are so rewarding and I quickly remember why I got into this industry... I absolutely love it!



 Newly laid 007 on #9 Mount Kidd course


 Our first cut was approximately 10 days after being laid


2 foot rolls are laid two at a time (side by side)