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