Drought Conditions at Victoria Park

Drought conditions persist at Victoria Park. We have not had significant rainfall in over a month and the golf course and water reservoirs (ponds) are showing it. Both Victoria Park East and Valley get their irrigation water from a deep well that fills our irrigation pond. During dry conditions we draw more water to irrigate the golf course then our permit allows to refill the reservoir. Under normal conditions the timely rainfall will allow us to stop watering the golf course and to fill up the ponds. This has not happened and we are still in June.
Water restrictions will most likely be happening very soon for people and businesses with a Permit to Take Water

Water restrictions will mean we will have to cut back on the amount of water we can use and we will have to start prioritizing parts of the golf course we irrigate. Since we do not water the rough anyway we would have to cut back on fairways and tees. This would leave enought water for greens.
Even without water restrictions our irrigation system will never be as good as natural rainfall. Certain areas have gone dormant. The turf is not dead and it will come back when ever significant rainfall occurs. The golf course is stlll very playable and we should be happy with the extra roll our ball is getting. We must keep up with the times and realize that having the golf courses in lush green conditions during a drought is not sustainable. Thank you for understanding.
Until next time...
David

What happened to the Early Spring!

Yesterday's snowfall has certainly slowed down the early spring we were all talking about a couple of weeks ago. We did manage to get 18 holes open at both courses. We mowed the greens at least once and had power carts out for a couple of days. With the golf course closed for a few more days we are keeping busy with spring jobs such as painting and spring cleaning. Annette looks like a professional rolling paint at the Valley.  The weather does not look good for the next week or so. Some of you may be wondering if this will have any effect on the greens. I am not worried this is just Mother Nature letting us know who is boss. The greens will be fine.
Until next time...  David

Early Spring has Arrived

 The weather is sunny and mild and the golf course overwintered well. The greens did not suffer any winter kill this year. That is great news for Victoria Park East since the course experienced some issues the past two seasons. The driving range and temporary layout opened today - March 12. This may be the earliest we have opened the range. We will have the entire golf course open by Easter Weekend maybe before depending on the weather.

 Chris Schuurmans (Assistant Superintendent) and crew were replacing sod this morning on some of the greens that have experienced winter kill/ ice damage in the past. A small strip of sod was cut out in any low areas to allow for water to drain quickly of the greens during thaw and snow melt.

There is some minor snow mould disease on some fairways. This is minor and will grow out soon. I will try to keep my posts more frequent this year, See everyone soon.
Until next time...
David

Irrigation Woes

Sorting out  irrigation wire issues at the East course

Although the year has had a decent amount of rain we have experience two dry spells. We have also experienced some irrigation problems. Its funny how we never notice the breakdowns during rainy wet weather, they always seemed to happen when we need the water! Irrigation problems can either be a pipe burst where water gushes all over the place or electrical problems. When a pipe leaks or bursts you know about it right away. There can be a big mess to clean up and water has to be turned off at least for that part of the golf course. These problems have to fixed right away especially during dry weather. Electrical problems can be more subtle or intermittent. These problems can be hard to find and therefore hard to fix. They can be caused by lightning strikes and or broken, nicked, or corroded wires. When we do have an irrigation problem whether it be an electrical or pipe break the grounds crew has no choice but to fix the problem. Often it involves some patch work or splicing just to get some water to the turf until all the problems are found. We realize at times the repairs may be in the way of the golfers. Believe me when I tell you the grounds staff would rather be somewhere else then interrupting your golf game. We appreciate your patience.
Until next time.....
David

What's new at Victoria Park?

Rolling Fairways at Victoria Park East
Some of you may of noticed a different type of mower on the fairways at East course. It is actually an old rough mower converted into a roller. Yes we are actually rolling fairways! I'm sure you are wondering why we would w be rolling fairways. Research in the golf industry has shown that rolling turf has decreased stress and decreased the incidents of certain diseases. One disease in particular is called dollar spot which is very common all summer long and very expensive to control. Reducing the amount of fungicides is very important to us for both environmental and economic reasons. Hopefully we see a difference. The added benefits are tighter lies and extra ball roll.

Big cups at Victoria Park Valley

We have installed big cups on the Valley nine at Victoria Park Valley. Larger cups were introduced in the golf industry a few years ago to make the game a little easier for high handicappers and beginner golfers. We hope that "traditional" golfers don't scoff at the idea. They should not interfere with your game. Who knows if you try it, you may like it.

Until next time...David

Wildlife Update from Victoria Park Staff

Green Heron

 Chris Schuurmans, the Assistant Superintendent at Victoria Park East has provided us with a wildlife update. Enjoy....

Course Wildlife
      Golf courses are very dynamic ecosystems with a wide variety of resident wildlife.  Over the course of the season we will be featuring some of the wildlife that can be seen on the golf course, how to identify them and a bit about their behaviour.  If there are any animals that you see on the course and would like to know, let me know and I'll do my best to help.  I'm new to this sort of thing, so bare with me, it's a learning experience.
  
      To start things off, we'll look at Butorides virescens, or more commonly, the Green Heron.  Green Herons are beautiful birds with a deep-green back, rich chestnut-brown neck, dark grey wings and yellow legs (juveniles are browner with pale streaking on the neck and spots on the wings).  They are shorter and stockier than most herons, with short legs and thick necks that are often drawn in against their body.  Green Herons hunt by standing motionless at the waters edge or in the shallows, and ambush fish or amphibians with their heavy dagger-like bill.  Interestingly, they are one of the world's few tool-using bird species.  They actually create lures from insects, worms feathers, twigs and other objects to entice fish to them.  During the breeding season, Green Herons perform courtship displays that include stretching their necks, snapping their bills, flying with exaggerated flaps, and calling loudly.  The male will find a secluded are in his territory and begin building a nest before pairing up to breed, but afterwards passes most of the construction off to his mate.  The pair will have a clutch of 3-5 eggs that they will incubate for 19-21 days.  Chicks will leave the nest 16-17 days after hatching, but may stay with the parents for over a month after leaving the nest as they learn to hunt. 
       Green Herons are rather common, but can be very difficult to spot, so keep your eyes pealed when you're around the ponds and creeks, and you may catch a glimpse of this gorgeous bird.  
Chris


      

Changes to the Rough at Victoria Park East

Rough is thick and long!

 The grass is finally growing and growing with a vengeance. The maintenance staff is having a hard time keeping up. The soil temperatures have warmed up to the point the turf has "exploded", including most of our home lawns.  Every year around the long weekend in May I hear the comments about the “US Open” rough. Believe me; this is not by design, just the time of year. Victoria Park East is purchasing a new rough mower.  We are purchasing a rotary type mower as opposed to the traditional gang- style reel mowers we have had since the course was open. Rotary mowers do a much better job when the grass gets long. Our goal is to improve the quality of cut in the rough (although this has not happened yet). We are going to experiment with different heights to find a happy medium where golfers can find their ball and have an easy shot out. With these planned changes to the rough we have decided to follow many other golf courses and make the fairways larger and stop mowing the first cut of rough or intermediate rough. Many of you have asked about the first cut of rough this weekend. I think it is important to point out that the fairways are actually wider, some fairways by the entire first cut and more! As I mentioned in the spring newsletter, we have to make decisions to ensure we remain economically sustainable. I am sure once the new rough mower arrives, and the turf slows down the first cut will not be missed and the entire rough will be much more playable. I hope everyone enjoys the lovely spring weather of this May long weekend. Until next time… David

Hole # 18 Fairway is now  where first cut  was

new Lastec rough mower

Getting the course ready

Getting Sand Traps Playable

 It has been quite a week with snow actually staying on the greens Thursday. The grounds crew has been busy trying to get the course ready. We did not have any prep time before the course opened to clean up debris and get the bunkers ready for play before the course opened. The East course has over 70 bunkers! It takes time to edge the bunker, clean out any debris, move around any sand and add new sand if needed. It takes about two weeks to complete all the bunkers. As you can see in the picture below, the grass has not really started to grow. We have not mowed any rough yet. There will be some rough mowed next week. The greens are filling in nicely. There are a few spots that have to be plugged. This will start next week. The forecast for next week is sunny and seasonal. See you on the course! Until next time.... David

 Valley Practice Green  Thursday April 23, 2015

Course Update April 3, 2015

Installing Turf cover on Practise Green - April 3,201

 The snow, ice and frost have finally left the greens. This morning Jason and his crew put some turf covers on some weak or stressed out areas. The turf covers act as a green house and will actually warm up the soil which will help the turf to start growing and green up quicker. The good news is the visual damage is mostly aesthetic. There is a lot of live turf where areas appear yellow or brown. I would say the damage is minor and certainly nothing like last year. When we open the golf we will be playing on ALL the greens. We are planning on opening the golf course next weekend weather permitting. We are constantly looking at the long range weather forecast (like yourselves) and hoping for the

Practise green showing some minor winter damage

best. Unfortunately it does not look great. Ideally the grounds crew would like a week to clean up the golf course and get it ready for play. To do this we need somewhat decent weather and the course conditions have to allow the crew to move around without damage. With the long range forecast not that great we will not have much time for clean up. I thank you for your patience and understanding. I look forward to seeing you all of you soon.
Until next time...
David

Finally Green Grass!

Vic East Practice Green March 18, 2015

The snow is finally melting. It always seems to take longer for the snow to melt out on the golf course than in town. The big concern on everyone's mind is the condition of the greens. As we all remember too well, last spring was the worst year for winter kill due to ice damage at many golf courses. I have been waiting to post a blog until now because I am never sure how the greens are going to turn out until the snow melts. Even now I am not completely sure how the greens overwintered because I can only see portions of them. What I can tell you is that what I have seen looks pretty good. I am not surprised because although this winter was bitter cold we did not have the accumulation of ice like we had

Assistant Superintendent Chris Shuurmans taking core samples
from 9th green - March 16, 2015

Channels through the snow on 9th green to allow for water to
quickly run off the green during melt - March 16,2015

year.
Unfortunately the weather is cool for the rest of the week and the rest of the snow will take some time melting. There fore it will take another week or two to really asses the condition of the greens.
Until next time..
David

Golf Course Closed!

November golfing was limited to just one nice day. It is now November 20th and a it feels like December 20th. We have already had a couple significant snow falls and freezing cold temperatures. It looks like milder temperatures are on the way for next week. We did manage to apply our snow mould fungicide and dormant fertilizers which is very important for healthy greens next spring. Many people have asked me if we are planning on doing anything different than last year to prevent the turf loss the East course greens experienced. The short answer is no. Every year we prepare the course for winter the best that we can. I would like to recap what happened last winter.  
The ice storm in late December and another rain event in January left a four inch ice layer on the greens. The solid ice layer trapped noxious gases which caused significant turf loss to the greens.  The Valley greens did not suffer any ice/winter damage because the greens are creeping bentgrass whereas the East greens are predominantly annual bluegrass.Annual bluegrass invades creeping bentgrass greens overtime. Most golf courses have poa annua. The grass can be identified by the seedheads throughout the year. The older the golf course, the more annual bluegrass unless the greens have been recently rebuilt. Annual blue grass or poa is a fine turf for putting greens except it is not as tolerant to extreme winters as we have witnessed in 2014. The Valley greens did not have any damage this spring because the three year old greens do not have any annual bluegrass – yet! 
We were aware of the problem during the winter and tried different methods to break up the ice. In hind sight our efforts did not make a difference and may have actually made the situation worse. The damage to golf courses was wide spread across southern Ontario and the eastern United States. Many of the top rated golf courses in North America were devastated. There has been many experts give their opinion on why this happened and what could have been done different to prevent this damage. The agreed consensus was that you cannot fight Mother Nature. Last winter was terrible and it did not make a difference if you covered your greens of if you shovelled off the show and ice. If your golf course was in a geographical area where the accumulation of ice was bad and the temperatures were frigid then you lost some poa annua. The only greens that had little to no damage were newer greens with mostly creeping bentgrass and smaller budget courses that keep there greens mowed much hire. Remember the demand for fast greens has forced superintendents to lower the cutting heights to the extremes. 

Once the damage was evident, Jason and his staff worked diligently to get them back in shape. This included overseeding and covering the worst areas with seed blankets. The seed blankets act as a greenhouse and allow the seed to germinate as well as encourage any surviving turf to fill in. We closed certain areas of the greens for as long as we could. Being a golf course that relies on public green fees and tournaments to financially survive we were forced to take the covers off sooner that most private clubs. The result of this was that most of the creeping bentgrass seedlings would not survive and more annual bluegrass would fill in the dead areas. The staff spent a considerable amount of time fertilizing, topdressing, hand mowing, taking tarps on and off and plugging the worst areas until the greens were finally filled in. The extra resources required for all this definitely meant some other areas of the golf course suffered like the bunker maintenance, line trimming etc. We thank you for your patience during this time. As for going forward, we will continue to prepare the greens the best that we can for the upcoming winter. The chances of us having a similar winter with all the variables that caused the problems are very remote. I was speaking to some retired Superintendents and they have not seen anything like that in forty years. 
Lets hope Mother Nature is better to us this winter. I will keep you posted throughout the winter. Until next time....
David 

Interesting find at the valley

Eastern Newt

Over the last few weeks I have noticed some of these small amphibians walking across the greens at Victoria Park Valley. I immediately thought it was some kind of salamander. When I looked on the internet I realized it was an Eastern Newt. In all the years I have worked at both Victoria Park East and Victoria Park West or the past three years at the Valley, I have never seen one.  According to the following web site www.ontarionature.org/protect/species/reptiles_and.../eastern_newt.php    
it is not considered endangered or at risk. I am pleased to see such species diversity at the golf course and confirms golf courses and the environment can co-exist.
I will keep you informed of other interesting wildlife.
Until next time...
David

Fall Activities

 Where has the time gone! It is now October 1st. I am completely embarrassed I have not posted a blog since July! The summer was very king to turf managers with cooler than normal temperatures and timely rains. We deserve it after the winter we experienced which devastated many golf course greens across the province.  Once the greens came back the golf courses have been in perfect shape. Now we are completing many of our fall activities. The pictures on the left show me (yes me) aerating tee decks at the Valley.

The greens were aerated in late August. The leaves are now just starting to fall which will add to the list. However it is a great time of the year. There is nothing like a sunny fall day to enjoy your favourite golf course!
Until Next Time....
David

Greens update Victoria park east - June 30, 2104

9th green

First of all, I apologize for my late blog on this subject. The greens have been recovering. Most of the greens are completely filled in. A few greens still have small patchy spots. You can see in the picture on the left our ninth green still has some thin areas. Jason Sewell our course superintendent has been working hard trying to promote growth in these areas while at the same time having all the greens open and maintaining them for good ball roll and speed. Some golf courses have decided not to open the greens as soon as we did and if they did open the greens they may be mowed much higher to allow the newly seeded grasses to mature. Being a public golf course we found that not to be a viable option. The difference between the two management procedures is that the courses that remained closed much longer than we did will probably have more creeping bentgrass in their greens which is a good thing. We will continue to top dress with sand, spike or aerate with small tines, and plug out any remaining bad areas.
I want to thank all the members and public who have been patient throughout this process.
Until Next time.... David

Ice Damage Update - May 22, 2014

Practice Green at East

 The greens are slowly improving. We have had some warm temperatures lately but not on a consistent basis to allow any germinated seedlings to mature. Most of the improvement has come from existing turf filling the voids. We are going to continue to aggressively plug out the any bare spots. We now have all 18 greens open and any tarped areas are much smaller. The greens should be in great shape in another couple of weeks.Thank you for your support and patience.
Until next time.... David

#9 green with small tarped area

Valley Clubhouse is Now Open!

 We have had the Clubhouse open now for a couple of weeks. It is not fully completed. The wet weather has delayed the completion of the exterior and the landscaping.
We are obviously still going through some "growing pains" of a new building. The comments so far has been good and we thank you for your continued patience during the final stages of construction. Please come visit us if you have not done so.

Until next time.... David

Ice Damage Update - April 30, 2014

9 green April 30

 The greens have recovered to the point where we definitely know where the turf has survived and where the dead spots are. The greens have definitely filled in a lot in the last two weeks but there are some greens that lost turf. At present we have three greens that are closed and nine greens with partial closures. The worst areas have all been seeded and covered. The covers give a green house effect and warm the soil for better growth and germination. In saying that the cold weather has not been good for growth or germination.

Dimple seeder - April 15

 We need about 18 degrees to warm up the soil enough for germination. As you know we have not had many days at that temperature.

Replacing cover - April 30

The covers need to come off every 4-5 days for mowing and fertilization. Every week we will asses the green and alter the covers if needed. Until we get warm temperatures the recovery period will be slow.











We have also started plugging out dead spots. This process will help fill in small areas. The process will talk some time. Lets hope for nice weather to help with our recovery efforts. Until Next time... David

Plugging Greens - April 30

Valley Clubhouse Update April 23, 2014

 The Crew has been busy and is moving right along. Our goal is to have the upstairs finished by the first week of May and complete the downstairs shortly after that. The flooring started last week. Ceramic tile has been placed in the Kitchen and the Snack bar area. Some of the kitchen equipment has been installed and the snack bar counter has been partially installed. There is still a lot of coordination and work to do to have the clubhouse partially open the first week of May.

The stone masons have been working around the weather to complete the stone work. They should be finished today. Above the stone work will be stucco. They have to have nice weather to work the temperature cannot go below 0 degrees. They are expected to move in Monday. Landscaping will start after the stucco crew has finished. We will open the clubhouse while the landscaping is finished. Until Next Time.... Davie

Ice Damage Update At Victoria Park East

 As the snow is melts we are seeing the true damage to the greens at the East course. We have started tarping greens with a permeable (breathable) cover to help warm up the soil temperatures and promote growth. there Until we get some warm rains and temperatures and the turf starts growing we will not know the extent of the damage. There is definitely damage some greens worse than others. We will be starting the year off with some greens partially closed and may even have a few greens completely closed.

The picture on the left shows a few golf course superintendents from Guelph, London, and Toronto meeting with David Otis from the United States Golf Association at the Cutten Fields GC discussing the damage. Golf courses all over Southern Ontario and the North Eastern United States have suffered from the harsh winter. Not every golf course is affected and some are worse than others.

The good news for Victoria Park members and guests is the Victoria Park Valley course's greens did not suffer any ice damage because of the new greens still have 100% creeping bent grass which is much more tolerant than annual blue grass. We hope to have the Valley course open for play Easter Weekend weather permitting.
Until next time.... David

Valley Club House Update - April 1, 2014

Deck on South Side

 The construction crew started working on the decks this week while work continued inside. The main floor has been dry walled. The mudding and taping still has to be finished. The duct work was also being completed today.
There is a lot of activity in the basement including framing with metal studs, electrical, plumbing, duct work, walk-in freezers, and Over head doors. It will be another busy and hopefully productive week. Until next time.... David

Overhead door in Basement

Main Floor