Winterization complete!

We have been experiencing one of the warmest, driest November's on record. Which is refreshing as the past couple of years have had us scrambling around to get the golf course put to bed properly. This years winterization process went very well. The lack of precipitation (rain or snow) has allowed us to finish the fertilizer and protectant applications in order give the turf a strong start next spring. Greens, tees and fairways have been fertilized and sprayed for snow mould protection. Rough areas are fertilized, divots are filled and course accessories have been brought in. Prior to this, the irrigation lines were blown out (it takes 2 full days) and leaves and debris were cleaned up to minimize disease potentials.

Winter can throw some interesting challenges at us, but aside from that I feel we have prepared the course very well.

Let it drain...

There have been a few nagging drainage issues on the golf course through the later part of this season. Rebel Creek is a unique property in that there are small springs that make there way to the surface in the strangest places. The key to maintaining a good playing surface is drainage, drainage, drainage. We have addresed three areas this fall in order to catch the water before it gets to the surface and redirect it into the existing drainage system.

Check out my slide show on divot and ball mark repair >>>>>

Bunkers... hazards???

It is interesting how a hazard that was once a wind eroded depression created and used by sheep grazing on the old courses became this! The cost of maintaining our bunkers, far exceed the cost of maintaining our greens. Bunkers have evolved into highly manicured hazard with sharp edges and fluffy (but not too fluffy) sand. I wish I had a sand pit suitable for bunker sand, because it is "gold" delivered in a dump truck.
Highly manicured turf... yes, but hazards... I am not sure...

light topdressing

Driving Range

Scattering your divot pattern as you practice on the driving range will speed up the recovery time of the divots. We include seed when we fill the divots with mix, but a bentgrass divot also fills in from the sides using lateral growth from stolons. Remember: try to ensure each divot is not touching the another and this will help speed up divot recovery!

Did you know... (mowing greens)

Did you know...
- the greens at Rebel Creek are mowed everyday
- we use Toro 21" wide walk behind greens mowers (as the photos show)
- Toro Flex21's have a floating cutting head that moves independently of the chassis. This allows for a great cut over undulating greens
- it takes 4 teams members, 3.5 hours to mow all 20 greens
- each team member taks great pride in mowing razor straight lines
- numerous ballmarks are repaired and filled on each green before it is mowed
- each mower is precisely set to <0.125" height of cut and checked everyday
- greens mowers are sharpened numerous times during the season
- all greens are mowed in a different direction everyday
- grass clippings are always collected and we monitor the yields to help us determine the fertilizer requirements

nature and golf co-existing

thatch removal program

Monday May 4: we will be continuing our thatch removal greens program. Our methods of controlling thatch levels has evolved over the past few years to the method we currently use. Our program includes a method of deep verti-cutting which cuts through the greens surface and pulls the thatch to the surface. We have calculated and tested our method and we have found that we remove a higher percentage of thatch and the greens recover more quickly from this practice compared to core aeration.
Why is this important? Excessive thatch will create greens that have inconsistent ball roll, drain improperly, as well as being prone to fungal diseases and heat stress. Bentgrass is naturally a thatch producer and in order to achieve high quality putting surfaces we need to control these levels regularly.

Hole #5 and #6 upgrades

Progress being made! We are planting trees, shaping bunkers and seeding.

Hole #5 and #6 Upgrades

A bulldozer cutting and filling the waste bunker.

snow!!!

Old man winter is showing us his stuff one last time!

first mowing

We took advantage of a warm afternoon and mowed all the greens for the first time this year. The course is very brown in colour which has come from the lack of snow cover in March and cold dry winds. This is a normal occurrence and some warm days and rains will perk things up quickly.
The course has wintered very well and we expect good spring playing conditions.
Shari hasn't missed a beat, mowing some real straight lines on #17 green for the first time this year!

Snow mould protection

An example of course winterization. Even though the turf on #6 tee deck is still dormant, it has been protected from snow mould due to an application last November. The line is very clear where the application started and stopped. The bluegrass rough is affected with pink snow mould, but will bounce back with some warmer temperatures. Snow moulds dramatically affect the spring recovery of bentgrass which we have on our tees, fairways and greens.

#4 fairway rehab

#4 fairway erosion

During our mid-March melt we experienced an incredible amount of melt water in a short period of time. The 4th fairway received a high volume of surface runoff from the adjacent field in which unfortunately created some subsurface erosion across the fairway. We will be addressing this repair project as soon as the fairway is firm enough to begin.
The project will entail:
- edging out and pulling up the sod
- filling in the eroded trenches
- packing the area and resodding with fairway bentgrass
We will continue to post our progress.