Early Winter Update

First week of new year out of the way, most of the visitors we had over the holidays are back home (one more group this weekend!) and now it's time to get back and establish some sort of routine. But first I'll fill you in on where we are now.

The first snow did eventually melt over a majority of the course which allowed us to get back out there and finish off the fall aerating. Neil L and myself were able to tag team  a very large portion of the front rough with the aerator during the last week of November which was a nice bonus.

The greens mostly managed to keep a thin layer of snow but for a select few that I choose to clean off and treat one more time.

2G - most snow melted but I did shovel off some

We went a for a stretch with cold temperatures and no cover and I am a bit worried about the impact on the Poa but the good news is since the ground had time to freeze (and is still frozen) I have a good hunch disease development should not be and issue this year.  The flip side, and there's always a flip side, the frozen ground will make for a slow spring start since the soil temperature will need to warm up before things will start to grow.

I made reference in the previous post about covering the small tee renovation we started this fall. Hopefully you were able to walk out and nose around to see the changes. I find it distracting to look for my camera to document progress and since my hands always seemed to be covered in muck I'm never too excited to reach into my pocket and grab my phone to take a picture with it either.....so there really isn't very many good pictures, sorry! Instead I'll try to briefly describe the impetus, the methods, and what is left to do this upcoming spring.

Here's a secret: I do watch you (members and daily fee players) when you're out on the golf course and make mental notes about some of your habits. I'm not looking so much for the ball mark repairing, bunker raking, and divot filling that is not getting done but more to the things that I think make your day sh*tty. Although I try to avoid generalizing too much, I sometimes think I can divide golfers into two groups: the self serving narrow minded group that want everything catered to their game and the over the top extreme group that thinks every shot should be skill testing and if you can't keep up then don't bother playing.  Ignoring either extreme, what I think is more of an issue is the impact mobility and length (yes, length!) seem to have on most players at KGC. We don't have the skill or resources, monetarily or otherwise, to tackle any major changes. Generally, KGC is short and, IMO, it is narrow and not particularly forgiving off the tee for an average player or high handicapper. Also, some tee complexes themselves are awkward and difficult to access and I know there are players who feel the same based on where they park their carts, especially on 13 tee. There in lies the impetus for tweaking the 13th and 14th tees: constructing a variety of tee decks for all level of players while improving the ease of access to the tee decks for all.

A discussion with Tom Yost opened up the opportunity for us to begin renovating the 13 and 14 tees late in the fall. Tom Y has the equipment and skill to do this type of work and offered to perform the work "in kind". For both tees the plan involved generating fill from the existing decks to create forward tees.

Before-ish Pict 13T

After-ish Pict 13T

By lowering and cutting away the banks Tom Y was also able to rough out cart paths for both decks that greatly increased the ease of access to the teeing surface eliminating the need to drive on the actual tee deck for mobility challenged players (or those of us with just sore knees!). In preparation for the excavation we stripped the sod from both tees but what we did this time was salvage what we could on homemade sod "toboggans".

Tom Y in excavator, sod toboggans in foreground

In the end we had enough salvaged sod to completely sod the new forward tee on 14 as well as 80% of expanded white/blue tee deck. As implied by the previous sentence 14 tee is mostly complete with the cart path and back deck to be finalized in the spring.

13 tee is roughed out with some irrigation installed on middle deck but final grading for the new forward and rebuilt white and blue decks still need to be completed in the spring.

Installation of irrigation on 13 T

It's tough to estimate time line to completion mostly because of the weather wild card but I suspect, just based on labour demands, you won't be hitting off new tees before May long weekend.

There's a Bit of Snow out There!

It seems to be turning itself into a long snowy winter. which is my preference, versus rainy cold winter. However, since I've been struggling through the "100 Day Cold" since January I'm starting to long for some seasonable spring weather!

After the brief warm spell 10 days ago I went out to check snow pack and surfaces.  I get around the course on a ski track I try to maintain throughout the winter but there is so much snow I haven't been able to get out with my machine so I ended up "postholing" my way around to some greens to take a look.

The tape is crooked but you get the idea

To be honest, we've had snow like this before so although the amount is substantial it's not unreasonable.  The problem I have is it's too much to remove with the tools we have.  With the greens surface mostly frozen I could use the bobcat but because of the amount of snow we end up with huge snow banks that take longer to melt.  A manageable amount of snow is around 16".  We have some black sand which I've used before (go HERE) but not enough for all the greens.  I'm working on other ideas to cut the snow but in my experience the sand is the best.  I made mention last fall about getting snow off early to mitigate disease and that is still my plan but I have to be careful since the freeze/thaw cycles that are synonymous with spring are one of the ways to kill grass - especially poa. However, with no real thawing of the surfaces occurring under the snow and no obvious ice to date I believe it is safe-ish to leave the snow on a bit longer.

Brown tips from last fall but otherwise looking good

The only project planned this spring is, hopefully, the replacement of the netting at the driving range.  Environmental factors (U.V. light and wind) create constant wear and tear that ultimately leads to holes.

Big hole at a pole

We've been able to patch holes by knitting together tears but last year we began to see rips and tears develop from holes far outside of our reach. We can try to limp through in typical KGC fashion but there is a 4 week lag time from ordering to having the net arrive on site so if one of the tears eventually takes down the whole netting the range will be out of service until the netting is replaced. Plus we would have to figure out a way to get a bucket truck through to the range which is a somewhat less damaging and disrupting process in the late winter/early spring while the ground is still frozen versus any other time of the year.

Snow wise and project wise we are at a bit of a standstill.  I can't help but think that, based on the weather pattern we seem to be stuck in, that it has the potential to be slow start to the season....stay tuned.....

That Was a Quick 31 Days

Over a month since a post.  July flew by and already I have to drive to work with the truck headlights on.

So whats been happening on the course?  Mostly good stuff with only a few typical "situations".  It's seems like old news but I'll comment on some small projects completed over the past couple months.  The new sponsor sign has been erected next to #1 tee and is filling up with the three levels of sponsors.  The construction side of the project was completed with volunteer member labour with the only costs being the materials for the structure and the printing of the signs.

Completed Sign With Sponsors

Another completed projected was the flowerbed redo at 4T that I mentioned in the last post.  By far the coolest thing about that project was the donations received from the members.  Alison W. got the ball rolling by donating her 50/50 prize from a Friday night social.  Soon the players from the Rose Bowl tournament voted to donate all unclaimed deuce pot money from their tournament.  A couple more 50/50's and from Ethel J. and Sue O. and all of a sudden it began to look like the "crowdfunding" idea had struck a cord with a certain group of people.  To date there has been over $400 contributed.  I basically used a portion of that money to plant the 4T flowerbed and buy the extra concrete caps needed to "finish" the project (finish is in quotes since I was unable to get the same colour and style cap to match the old style we salvaged so it looks a bit awkward)

Adding and Amending Root Zone

Mixing It Up

Finished Flower Bed

I was very excited and happy to see the response from my desperate plea at the AGM.  People either appreciate our situation or took pity on me.  Whatever the case may have been I was happy to have the cash to do a little something extra and I believe people are pleased with the result.  Is it too bold to ask for more?  Imagine, redoing a weak tee or adding extra tees to make the course more player friendly?  Maybe keep updating/renovating the existing flower beds?  If you've got a bee in your bonnet share it with me and maybe we can find proponents and who knows what can happen!

Pretty Routine...

Routine is how I would describe the last two weeks.  We are spot aerating and overseeding select fairway as foretold and, unfortunately, we haven't been able to get to the collars but we will.  If you go back and look at posts I wrote in the month of June in years gone by you will see that most every June we were aerating, fertilizing, and fighting disease.  It sort of makes me see how common place events and situations really are when it comes to maintenance in June. 

I am now sure that I am running too small of staff since sh*t isn't getting done and if something is completed it is not in a very timely fashion.  One project dragging on is the not-so-quick and dirty re-do of the flower bed on #4 tee.

Adding Fresh Root Zone for Flower Bed on 4T

We dug out the old railway ties and replaced them with the blocks from the old wall that use to be near #8 green.  Those blocks have been in our dump for ages and I decided to make use of them.  Ultimately, I see replacing the homemade rock walls all around the course with this style of block.  I know landscaping with this style of landscape block is definitely pedestrian (and somewhat expensive) but since the homemade walls fall down or bulge out and need repairing every year and we just aren't getting to them I feel forced into choosing a lower maintenance alternative.  Perhaps the "crowd funding" idea that seems to be taking on some steam could help in the replacement of the rock walls with landscape block.  What do you think?

As I get older I begin to really to appreciate those things that save my back and my knees.  I think I've made mention of my experience with high rise toilets and how fantastic they are so from now on when we replace a potty it is with a high rise.  Keeping with that theme I bought some rake handles this spring with the hope of catering to crotchety backs.  Instead of 54" handles I bought 72" handles and put them out on those holes with really steep bunker faces. 

A 18 Inches Difference May Not Look Big but Every Little Bit Helps

In a perfect world players would always exit a bunker on the shallow side but a fair number don't even take the time to smooth their regular tracks.  People tend to take the most direct route out so I thought I would provide longer rake handles to reach down the steep face and players could smooth their foot prints if they chose to go that way.  Also, maybe, with any luck, longer rake handles may make raking bunkers easier and perhaps more people will do it.  Uh huh.......