Annual Spring Photo and Projected Opening Date

Spring 2011

For background go to: http://kimberleygolfclub.blogspot.com/2010/04/when-do-we-open.html.

In 2010 we had no snow at the same time of year and opened 9 holes on April 17 with the remaining of the course open for play by the middle of the following week. This year?

Opening depends on more than just the disappearance of snow from the course. Aside from waiting for conditions to dry up from the run off, I also like to have as much as the irrigation going as possible since the turf will require small amounts of water to help in the continual recovery from the winter as well as cope with the stress associated with play and maintenance. I've long given up the idea of having everything completely prepared for play first thing in the spring. Even after the snow melts and the course drys we would need another 5 -7 days with a crew of at least 6 to clean up from the winter and prep the entire course for play. My guess is people are anxious to get out and probably don't want to wait. Working in and amongst play is slow and inconvenient (for everybody!) but it probably only adds a few days to the clean up and as a general rule, I think, people just want to get out and work out the cob webs for the first few rounds.

A guess would have things up and running no sooner than the third week in April?

Blowin' Snow

The snow level is starting to drop to a manageable level for us to work with. Shady spots still have up to 16 to 18 inches but other areas with even a little mid-day sun are getting down to the 12" level.

We began removing snow from the greens and started with #7 since it was the only green with an impermeable cover. We wanted to get some air exchange between the stale air under the tarp and the atmosphere (this relates back to a condition called anoxia. See http://kimberleygolfclub.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html). Things appear to be O.K. with no obvious disease and no stench (the usual indicator of problems). As usual, we will get a better read on things once the turf shows signs of growth.

Course Update...such as it is

This will be brief. Snow is melting but we are still dealing with 20 inches on shady spots and 16 inches in the sunny areas. Temperatures have been nice but not as nice as the seasonal norms of plus 10. At the present snow level, removal would be arduous and could create large, dense snow banks that would be slow to melt. The usual reason we remove snow is to address suspected problems such as ice, disease, or tarp removal. We've dug down and haven't seen any obvious ice in the usual low areas or disease (to be far disease doesn't really show up until after snow melt).

18 Green Surface

The color is far from mid-season but based on the growth of the plugs we've pulled from the greens this year it seems to be temporary as seen from this pictures of a plug from 1 green.

Plug from #1 Green
March 4th

Plug from #1 Green
March 18th

The snow is also limiting our mobility as exemplified by the following:

However, with the right vehicle we can get around:

The vehicle on the left of the picture is obviously lighter and has high floatation tires that allow us to drive on top of the snow if there is a dense, crusty layer. The picture I'm not showing is the one where I also got the "high flotation" vehicle stuck 100 yards down 4th fairway and had to dig a road to it with the bobcat to pull it out. What I am I trying to say? Patience.

The New Carts Have Arrived.

Preparing to unload carts

Its still early but some things are happening in preparation for the golf season. Earlier this week we received the new carts which are all equipped with GPS. Not everyone knows that each time we get new carts they have to come from Georgia (the state not the country). The trucks left on a Wednesday and arrived early on a Monday. Each truck carries 28 carts (we needed 3 trucks for the 66 carts delivered) in a "double-decker" style trailer. The roofs, windshields, etc. are loaded in compartments located under the trailer. If you double click the following picture you can see how little room there is for the top row of carts. Driving them out is fairly straight forward but backing them up can be challenging. Luckily, the dudes from Georgia do it all and we just watch.

Ramp leading to upper row

Most the old carts were loaded and at least one truck and trailer returned those carts to the U.S. I am not sure about the rest but usually they are taken to Calgary and Club Car in Calgary sells them.

Truck in the fore ground is loading old
carts while the other unloads new carts

Now that all the carts are equipped with the Visage (or the GPS system to keep it simple) we now have the option to use all the features that are available with such a system. Aside from the obvious tracking time and movement of the carts, we will be able to control the area carts are allowed to travel. For instance, but placing an "electronic fence" around the golf course perimeter no cart will be able to leave the property since the new carts will automatically shut down once they reach the perimeter. No more going to the Marysville pub for beers! Even better, from a selfish stand point, is the ability to limit traffic in excessively wet areas after monsoons without stringing out miles of rope. Also, we can limit traffic on the steep banks located on the back nine roughs. We can control the speed of the carts around the clubhouse and on steep cart paths to help limit the possibility of roll overs and crashes. As with all things there will be tweaking to get it all finessed properly for KGC.

At the end of this week I'll do another post on course conditions and where we are headed but as it stands now it is still wintry and not a whole lot has changed.