Golf Course Maintenance Update

The maintenance crew has been busy cleaning up after the big wind storm we had several weeks ago. The storm dumped quite a bit of debris throughout the golf course. The guys did an outstanding job getting the golf course cleaned off and ready for play in a relatively short period of time. We still have some more debris in some of our out of play areas and we'll be getting to those as the winter moves along.

Winter has officially arrived with the first snow of the season this past Saturday, November the 29th.  This little snow storm has thrown us for a loop in the maintenance department. The snow would have been fine except it was followed up with some pretty cold temperatures. This has allowed the snow to stick around  longer than we had hoped. There's not a whole lot we can do with the golf course when this happens, except to be prepared once it breaks to get out and get things cleaned up and mowed again quickly. Unfortunately, when we get these cold snaps the greens freeze up and we have to wait until they are completely thawed out before we can mow or roll them.

One of our major goals during the winter months is to install some drainage around the golf course. We have started with a couple of spots close to #1 and #7 greens. We will be installing some sand in one area and some sand and drain pipe in another. These areas will receive new sod as well. Moving on from there, we are looking at conducting some additional drainage in #2, 6, 8 and 14 fairways.

As always we are looking at some tree removal. One specific area we are looking at are the trees to the right of the #7 tee box. This tee has a very short window of sunlight even during the summer months. This makes  it difficult to get a good stand of turf to grow on the main teeing area.

Golf Course Maintenance Update

Spring has finally arrived leaving us drenched in a sea of water it seems like. Just when we think we can get going to stay on top of all of the mowing we get hit with another blast of rain. This hasn't stopped us, but it's difficult to get our frequencies on track. The only thing on track is that this may be one of the wettest springs on record!

Aerification went very well except we could have used one or two more days of sunshine. Due to the rain we had difficulty getting the sand into the holes on the greens and tees, making recovery a little slower. You may have noticed the sand on the tees and fairways was more coarse this year. The more coarse we can get the sand without getting too large will help with drainage and help provide a better agronomic condition for the turf.

Sand on #2 tees

The sand will eventually work it's way down as rain continues and the grass grows up through the sand. In many areas we sanded first it's hardly noticeable now. Some sand will also work its way into the aerification holes. All sanding has been completed except for the approaches, which we will be doing next week. In advance of the sanding we will solid tine aerify the approaches also.

We would like to inform everyone that the drinking fountains on the golf course have been shut off. We have a leak in our domestic line somewhere on the golf course, which has yet to be located. Part of the problem is we think the leak is small and during this time of the year it's difficult to locate due to all of the rain and damp conditions on the golf course. For your convenience, we have positioned three Crystal Spring water coolers on the golf course. You can find these at each of the restrooms on the golf course. Please feel free to fill your water bottles.  We will do our best to keep cups and water supplied at each location.

 

 Recently we opened up the grass range near the clubhouse just in time for the rains to come and shut it back down. We will open this up as weather dictates. The back of the range grass tee has some new rules for practice. We've positioned two ropes that we would like players to hit between. This will help us control wear to a confined area. When this area is used up, we will move the rope back to a new location. We would appreciate your help in self monitoring this area. It will help keep this in better condition throughout the summer.

At the very back of this tee is a sand divot box. Our maintenance staff will conduct sanding and seeding each week in this area, but feel free to assist by using the divot mix located in the box to fill your divots.The sooner we can get sand and seed down the faster we will get recovery.

With all of the rain and warmer temperatures the areas on #5 and #3/7 where the trees and brush were removed are now starting to grow. Our hope is to have these playable this summer sometime.

Left of #5

#3/7

Golf Course Maintenance Update

As of this posting, March has been one of the wettest on record. So far for the month of March, here at Canterwood we have received 9.32 inches of rain, well above our average of 5.67 inches. What does this mean for the golf course? Needless to say, some pretty soggy conditions. All and all though, it has come through with flying colors. We've had very few washouts in the bunkers and almost all of them have been draining well. The drains that have been installed over the past several years throughout the golf course are working very well also.
Below are some pictures taken recently of some work we've done on #3 tee/#7 green - Left of #5green - #15 walk path and the finished drainage on #5 fairway.

Drainage behind #7 Green - this area will receive a topdressing of sand

Area behind #7 green

Almost ready for seeding

Area to the left of #5 green

Ready for seeding

Drainage improvement between #14 green and #15 tee

Chip path to #15 tee

Finished product #5 fairway

We are all hoping for a drier April, but as they say, "April showers bring May flowers". Let's just hope they are wrong on the showers part!

Golf Course Maintenance Update

January proved to be a month with less than average rainfall. We were able to get out and mow the golf course much more than normal for this time of the year. Our average for January is around 5.50 inches. As of today, January 31, we are right around 3.75 inches for the month. We had a total of 14 days with recordable rain.

January was a busy month for the crew as we took on a couple of projects around the golf course. First, as you will see by the slides below, we are in the final stages of finishing the drainage on #5 fairway. This area will get some new sod over the ditch lines and will steadily continue to dry out as the drains start to take off excess water.

#5 Fairway

#5 Fairway looking back toward tee

#5 Fairway

As many of you know, especially our lady members, the number one ladies tee is a very small and unimpressive first tee. In an effort to correct this, the crew extended the tee to the right and back just a little bit. It is now a much bigger and a more impressive first tee for our lady members and guests. It will remain closed until we can get some new growth established as temperatures warm up this spring.

#1 Ladies tee

Another project  has been some additions to our irrigation system in the rough on hole #13. We are extending some sprinkler heads into some rough areas that tend to dry up in the summer and cause balls to bounce pretty hard toward the out of bounds area. This improvement will help to maintain some needed turf in these areas with the hopes of keeping balls from bouncing hard to the left and potentially out of bounds. It also will help this area aesthetically during our summer months.

#13 Rough irrigation

In addition to these projects our landscape crew has been busy sprucing up some planter beds around the golf course.

#4 Cart staging area

#7 Tee 

Let's cross our fingers and hope we have a dry February and spring will be here before we know it.

Golf Course Maintenance Update

Despite the cold and wet weather we've been having, the golf course maintenance crew has been busy finishing up some work on holes # 3 and #5. We've recently had stumps removed and completed some ground leveling. Our goal  is to continue to smooth out the ground and develop turf in both of these areas.

#5 Stump was removed and leveled off

Below are pictures of the area to the left of #3 tee. The area is getting prepped for seeding this spring. 

In addition to preparing these areas for seeding we have been busy edging the cart paths next to greens and tee complexes. This is very time consuming and difficult work, mostly done with a small edger and shovels. Once completed in these areas,we will be moving on to the fairway portions of the paths. 

Our next project will be putting in drainage in the middle of #5 fairway. We are targeting the landing zone at about the 150 yard marker and going up to about even with the fairway bunker on the left. This is expected to start next week Monday the 13th of January.

Golf Course Maintenance Update

Well our first freeze is finally over, but as you know it's early.  Winter, officially called the Winter Solstice, doesn't start until December 21st.  As of this writing we are not seeing much damage from the very cold temperatures we experienced for almost 10 days. Just some discoloration here and there. We'll know more as we come out of the thawing phase. We did develop a disease called Fairy Ring prior to the freeze on #18 green and the small chipping green. There are over 52 different kinds of Fairy Ring. This particular one is very noticeable in just the middle and towards the back of #18 green.While we don't anticipate any turf loss it makes for a rather odd look, which left unchecked could cause some problems. The Fairy Ring you may be familiar with is usually a large circular dark green ring with mushrooms growing from it. Generally this is caused from decaying organic matter.

Fairy Ring

This can be controlled by a fungicide, which we will be applying once the greens have thawed out. We're not sure why only #18 and the small putting chipping green were affected. Hopefully it is contained to just these greens as we have not seen any other greens with the disease.

Over the past several days the maintenance crew has been busy clearing out some areas on #5 of salal bushes. Areas to the right and left out about 200 yrds from the tee have received some needed removal to help pace of play. Generally in these areas, finding an errant tee shot could take a while. Additionally, we have removed the two large trees to the left of  #5 green. These two trees where causing some significant problems with sunlight to the green and also contributing to some turf decline in and around the front left of the green. With the added drainage in this area and some new sod on the way this area will be in much better shape to play from. We've sanded the area quite heavily so we've marked it as "ground under repair".

#5 drainage

#5 left of green

#5 tree removal 

We've also removed a significant amount of salal and under brush to the left of #5 green. This area will now  be a playable spot if a golf ball kicks left of the bunker.

Left of #5 green

As a result, we expect to see more sunlight to the green and it will also allow golfers to find their golf ball should it enter this area.