Welcome to KCountry

Hey everyone.  My name is Cameron Watt and I am one of the assistants at the KCountry golf course.  I am new this year and I started work at Kananaskis on April 16th.  It has been a unique, interesting and fun experience to say the least.

I moved to Kananaskis from Kelowna, British Columbia.  Including Kananaskis, I have been a part of 4 different golf courses working with the turf care department.  I came from Two Eagles Golf Course & Academy.  I was the assistant there for almost 5 seasons.  Before that I was at Predator Ridge Golf Resort and Sunset Ranch Golf Course.

I have been growing grass for 12 seasons.  Each and every golf course has been an awesome experience.  They all have helped me develop my skills and personality in becoming a turfgrass manager.  Kananaskis is no different.  My roles and responsibilities here are unlike any other I've had at other courses.  With the help of my new friend, James Bryce, who is our other assistant, I have been able to quickly familiarize myself with the operation and the property.

I will miss all my friends and family, especially my fiancé Shelley, who will be living in Kelowna for another year.  I do however appreciate all their support and happiness for my new experience and journey in becoming a golf course superintendent.  Thank you all!!

Hopefully we will try and update this blog frequently, but for now I wanted to introduce myself to everyone that follows.  Have a great season!

Swan Song

Well this is going to be my last blog post before I hand the K Country Turf Care blog over to James my counterpart. The weather this winter has been quite unusual and that has caused some problems on the course. There has been a bit of ice build up on greens and fairways, but the tees are in good shape. A lot of the ice on the greens has started to disappear on the untarped greens which is nice, but we still have a few areas of ice to deal with. We are currently using an industrial heating blanket, powered by a gas generator to melt the ice off the surface of the greens. This has proven to be a slow process, but we are getting some good results.

2 Lorette pretty much ice free

Heating blanket in action under tarp

On a positive note there has been limited elk activity on the course which will make the spring clean up a little easier I would think. We are currently in full swing in our staff hiring process and are quickly assembling a great team for the upcoming season, with many returning faces, coupled by some good golf course experience. It’s definitely bittersweet for me as I am excited to see to the great team we are assembling, but I will not be able to see the end result.

I am excited for my new position, and believe it was an opportunity I could not pass up. On the other hand, I have unfinished business in Kananaskis and the goals I wanted our Turf Care Team to achieve. The team is in good hands though, as I know James will be a great leader for the team as he was able to prove at the end of the 2011 season. I have no doubt he will continue to make the Turf Care Team stronger in 2012. Thanks to everyone that followed the blog in 2011, and will continue to follow the blog this season. I will have a new blog at Dinosaur Trail, so watch for that.

Finally thanks to every individual that has been a member of the Turf Care Team while I was the Assistant Superintendent. My goal has always been and always will be to create a team mentality built on respect, personal pride, and accountability. I hope you enjoyed your time under my leadership, and felt like you took something from your time in Kananaskis. I know I am definitely a better person for having the opportunity to learn from each one of you.

The Off Season

Things have slowed down considerably in the K Country turf care department. I would like to think we are in cruise control until the new year. I am currently focused on growing my Movember moustache,playing hockey, checking the tarps to ensure the bubble wrap stays in place, bucking up fallen trees after the 100 km + chinook winds took them down last week, and starting to prepare for next season. We had the chance to check out a Turf Canada seminar on Floratine last week, which was very informative, as they talked about some important agronomy issues and new products. As well we have the AGSA Property Manager’s Conference coming up at the end of the month, which will be a good time. I have started the interview process with some of our international turf students, so they can have ample time to apply for their Visas. I am hoping to have job offers out to 4 or 5 turf students by mid December.

As well we have a movie company setting up shop in the parking lot about 200 yards from our office for the movie Bourne Legacy. I am hoping to play the role of moustache guy #2, but we will see if my acting career will pan out. If anything I plan to try and get in good with the security guards and get a few pictures taken with some of the cast. James is a huge fan of Edward Norton so we will see if we can get him an autograph.

Other than that we are just waiting the snow to fall so we can keep busy ploughing and working on refurbishing some course accessories.

Winterizing by the Numbers



Sam leading the Train

 Now that the course is put to bed, we have taken a few days to relax and compile some interesting numbers on what it takes to winterize Kananaskis Country Golf Course. These numbers do not account for the irrigation system blowout, or fungicide applications leading up to our final fall application. It is a pretty intense winterizing program, but definitely needed to ensure our golf course comes out of winter in great shape.



Putting down the bubble wrap and tarp on the final green

 Here are the numbers we came up with:


Lacy using Josh as a stepping stool



Final fungicide application – 36 tanks (165 gallon tank mixes)



Total number of Sandbags used to keep the tarps in place on greens- 240 ( Sandbags are 6 foot lengths of 4 inch lay-flat pipe filled with sand)

Total number of spikes used to hold down the tarps- 5300 + ( Spikes are hammered in every 8 inches around the perimeter of the tarp)

Total number of posts used to hold up the elk fence on the course- 2100 + ( each post was pounded in by hand)

Total number of ties used to hold on fencing to posts- 6000 + ( usually 3 ties per post)

Total amount of elk fence put up on the course- 7.5 km +

Total amount of landscape edging put in around greens to water of the surface of the greens- 141 pieces (average 16 feet in length)

Scotty's team installing the edging

Total amount of bubble wrap used on greens- 185000 square feet

Total amount of man hours to winterize the course- 2400 +

Total number of amazing staff that completed the job in 10 days - 26

Number of amazing dance moves thrown down to this song on the final green of tarping– TOO NUMEROUS TO COUNT

 So in a nutshell that's what gets done on one of Canada's highest golf courses at 5100 feet above sea level to prepare it for winter. I am hoping we get the snow that is forecasted for the area tomorrow as we could use it told hold down the tarps and not allow the wind to flip the bubble wrap under the tarps. Thanks to my stats man James for compiling the data and helping me remember what song everyone was dancing to on the upper green. Here's hoping everyone can get their courses put to bed before winter hits



Guys pounding posts around the TC putter











James figuring out how many fence posts we used





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