Its Been Awhile

Well I have definitely been slacking on the turf care blog this month as some of my present and previous employees have reminded me. July has been a busy month at the Kananaskis Country Golf Course, as well as at every golf course in the country. The weather has been great this month with normal amounts of precipitation, and not one morning frost delay which is very rare at a mountain golf course. As of today I have not had to use any insect repellent on the course, and knock on wood, it will be the first time I have never used any during the season. Coming from Manitoba I know what mosquitoes are all about, so it is a nice change to have a limited amount of pests on the golf course. Speaking of pests I have noticed a few more elk on the golf course and they have been leaving their mark on the greens as well as in the bunkers. There has also been an increase in bear activity in the area, mainly grizzly bears. Numerous trails have been closed in the area to reduce the chance of the bears coming in close contact of the trail patrons. Calvin, Trent, and I spend a lot of time dealing with bears on the course, and after awhile the novelty wears off, so a good day is one not spent dealing with bears.

Bear 105 "Maggie" and her cubs

This month we completed a deep tine aeration with the help of Specialty Turf, and have been plugging away at smaller golf course improvement projects. We have been doing some selective tree removal and pruning to improve turf health in high traffic areas, as well I plan to get the GA 60 rolling next week to relieve some compaction in walk on areas. Fertility wise we are right where we want to be with all applications up to date and all playing surfaces looking great. We are still cutting our greens at a relatively higher height than most courses, but with our topdress and rolling program we are still achieving our desired speeds while still promoting a healthy stand of turf.

Overall I am quite pleased with how this season is going. We are pretty much at the half way point in the season with only 11 more weeks left for the course to be open for play. The turf care team has been great, consistently delivering an excellent product each day to ensure we meet or exceed player expectations. With a crew of 40 + there is always going to be changes, but for the most part we have maintained a very strong team core that is responsible for the great conditioning of the course today. Staff training is an ever continuing process as we like to have a versatile staff that doesn’t lose motivation by having to do the same thing day in and day out. It keeps our supervisory busy, but it definitely keeps the crew morale up, and the mid season slump at bay.

The Crew getting ready to end another great day



Luis and Adam in deep conversation on 6 Lorette

Finally I would like to congratulate Shane Buckley in being named the top student in his turfgrass program at Elmwood College, in Cupar Scotland. I had the opportunity to visit Elmwood College in 2008 during my trip to UK and the program is known internationally for producing great turfgrass managers. Shane is no different, he has been an important part of our team, providing leadership and performing many of our most important tasks. I have just received word that Shane will be heading back to the UK at the end of August to complete his level 3 certification. We are going to miss him, but we wish him all the best in continuing his education and know how much thought went into making his decision to head back to Elmwood.

Shane on 3 Kidd