Driving Range Opening Date

Looks like we will open the range this coming Wednesday, May 30 or at the very latest this coming Friday. At this stage,  the sodded tee deck is fairly established and is not the real hurdle.  The time line I mentioned in the March 14th post  did not happen exactly as planned but we are more or less where I had hoped.  It took us longer to get the area prepared and we didn't started seeding until May 10 (versus May 4 which I had planned).  The good news was there was germination happening after 9 days (May 19th) and a definite green sward by 14 days (May 24th).  The seed blend we used was a Perennial Rye and Kentucky Bluegrass blend.  Rye can germinate in 7 to 10 days at optimum temperatures and Kentucky will germinate in 14 to 30 days.  Before opening the range my hope was to have the rye well on its way and the Kentucky starting to grow but, as previously mentioned, preparing the seedbed took longer so we were late to seed.  Not an ideal situation but not the end of the of the world either.

We still need to repair the netting, add sand to the practice bunker, and complete the tie in around the edges.  The way it is going with regular on course maintenance taking up most of the mornings we will probably work on the range during the latter half of our days.  I just added some picks showing various stages for you to browse.

D-9 Pushing Material Last Fall

Trenching in Irrigation
Fall 2011

Trenching in Control Tubing
Spring 2012

Preparing for Seeding
Spring 2012

Finishing off Seeding and Watering it in
Spring 2012

17 Days After Seeding

Not a lot of pictures.  I missed quite a few good pictures showing the process since I wasn't always enough on the ball to remember my camera plus some of the pictures I did take are sort of boring.

Most likely the new seedlings will require babysitting for a bit and we may have to visit some of the irrigation heads but hopefully the problems and inconveniences are few and far between.

Provincial Report on Cosmetic Pesticide

This past week the committee appointed by the provincial government released its report.  Go to  Special Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides report for the full report (or read the Executive Summary at the beginning of the full report for the quick and dirty version)


This particular "e-consultation" generated the most submissions ever to a BC parliamentary committee with 8600 groups and individuals participating.  Over 7000 e-questionnaires were submitted and almost 5,000 supported a ban on the sale and use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes.  The committee came up with 17 recommendations that include restricting the sale and use of Commercial-class pesticides, better enforcement, and better training and public education related to pesticide use.  


I realize I am just plagiarizing the report so maybe it is better you go and read it.  Reading between the lines a bit I would guess that the Liberals do not support a provincial ban since the Executive Summary references a split along "party lines over the justification for a province-wide ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides" and a majority of the committee members were from the Liberals.


At present, golf course will not be influenced negatively by the 17 recommendations.  Stay tuned.  We see what the next election brings.  


With respect to the course I need to explain that I am not doing any updates because nothing is going on but because a tonne of stuff is going on.  Spring is busy with training staff and getting the course ready.  I hope to play catch up so keep checking back.  Topics I want to cover include the progress on the range, review of our fungicide "trials", and a discussion about how the course recovered from winter including WTFrig is up with the upper putting green.

My definition of Cosmetic

The debate is still on and we are still waiting for a formal response/recommendation from the Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides ( see We got a problem.... post for refresher).  I had a goofy idea last fall.  I wanted to stress the importance of the cosmetic pesticide debate to people who golf at KGC.  We chose an area on #1 fairway and deliberately did not spray it with our overwintering fungicide.  To encourage as much involvement as possible on the pesticide issue I wanted to get peoples attention so we spelled out the word "WHY" with garbage bags and sprayed over top of the bags.

The "WHY"

The hope was that the areas covered with the bags would be riddled with disease while the surrounding area would be green and healthy and show no disease.  When people asked what the "WHY" meant I would use that question as my lead-in to the cosmetic pesticide debate.  However, stuff happens.  In the race to get everything ready for winter we forgot the location of the "WHY" and sprayed right over it and, as a result, the area I was hoping to act a show piece for disease came through looking great!?!  I guess the good news / bad news is there is lots of other areas to show the importance of an overwintering spray to KGC but you need to know where to look.  Take a look:

#4 Fairway

The left side of picture shows the control achieved with the low rate of an overwintering fungicide while the right side had no fungicide applied and is covered with snow mould.

I like to leave some areas on the golf course untreated for cost reasons but also for reference points to get an indication the disease pressure from year to year.  The following pictures are from 8 fairway. 

Start of #8 Fairway: not treated

The rest of #8 Fairway: treated

Had we not treated sections of  number 8 the whole fairway would look like the area in the first picture. 

#12 Fairway

I took the picture of 12 fairway from on top of the hill on the right of the fairway.  The line between treated and untreated on the fairway is obvious.

IMO, I don't think the disease pressure was exceptionally high this year based on what I've seen on untreated areas of turf.  I am comfortable with the rate that we used and I would be hard pressed to give up treating fairways based on cost or legislation.  How long will it take for those area we didn't spray to recover?  This is where Poa is good because I know we have a huge seed bank in the soil so, ultimately, the grass will come.  How long it takes depends on weather and other stresses (play, mowing, etc).  There is things we can do to speed recovery but with this years budget we don't have the man power or necessary equipment to address these areas adequately.

As you play the course this year keep an eye on those areas shown in the previous photo's and see how long it takes for those fairway areas hit by snow mould to recover to a playable condition.  For me, none of the sprays we did last fall were for cosmetic reasons.  There is too much golf to choose from locally to risk not having the course in the best possible condition.  Unlike damage from other winter stresses (ice, crown hydration, etc), I have some level of control on how severe winter disease damage can be by applying fungicides.  Actual risks associated by application of products for cosmetic reasons are, perhaps, best demonstrated by this photo: