July 27th

Dave Bacon aces No. 12 green Friday!

 

WEATHER CONDITIONS

The cooler weather continues with another cool morning with temps down to 11 degrees after yesterday moderate highs of 24.  Today it is expected to be mainly sunny with a high of 25. UV index 8 or very high. Tonight, a few clouds will moved in with an overnight low of 16.  Saturday we expect to see increasing cloudiness and then a few showers beginning late in the afternoon with a risk of a thunderstorm late in the afternoon and in the evening. Wind becoming southeast 20 km/h late in the afternoon. High 24.

GOLF EVENTS
The Mottershead Family tournament will be this Sunday with a shotgun at 1pm, there will be a 8:00 AM shotgun as well as tee times at 6pm for anyone wanting to play before and after.

DRIVING RANGE CLOSURE
The pumps at the range have caught up and the ditches have all dried up throughout the property which has helped dry down the area.  The Driving Range remains open for PARTIAL USE ONLY while it is too soft for the ball picker.  We anticipate a FULL USE OPENING soon with a few more drying days.  For now we ask that you hit only from the stations that are set up, and only at the flagsticks set up (yardages are indicated on the permanent marker). The range will be closed during certain times to hand pick as needed, and for Junior Clinics. Thank you for your understanding during this wet season.

GOLF CART USAGE
Golf carts are available today for FULL USE.  Please be mindful of stress on turf caused by concentrated traffic.  Scatter carts to avoid excessive wear.  Please use cart paths where provided.  Keeping carts on paths on par 3's is a good practice.

COURSE CONDITIONS
Greens - Were cut and rolled this morning.  Green speeds are 10 feet and rolling true after verticut and topdress this week.  Overall greens are in pretty good shape despite this year's extreme weather conditions.  A lot of bentgrass has emerged into many areas from our overseeding efforts instead of the Poa.

Some Poa areas on greens are still recovering from last week's heat wave.  Poa doesn't tolerate extreme weather very well and temperatures of 38 with the humidex is no exception!  The back of No. 3 and back of No. 10 come are two examples where the Poa in these areas isn't used to full sunlight.  However the bentgrass in those areas is thriving in the aeration holes! 

The newly laid sod two weeks ago on No. 1, 2 and 10 has now taken root and has survived the heat wave.  We are now mowing down these areas slowly, lowering the mowing heights every couple of days so these areas will be playable for the upcoming club champs.  Today the sodded areas will be topdressed to help further smooth the surface.

The seed has started to germinate on No. 14 green and 17 from the hand-dimple seeding.  We will repeat this process in the coming week to continue to fill in the voids.  The seedlings that were emerging from early July's slitseeding were set back a bit after last week's extreme heat wave.  This current break from the hot weather should help with recovery of these greens over the next couple of weeks.

At Friday's greens committee meeting we looked at the sodding option of No. 14 and 17 greens.  After careful analysis we recognize this late in the season the greens will be more playable if we let nature take it's course and continue with the seeding process rather then sodding.  The sodding would need a few weeks before it would be ready to be mowed down to normal greens height.  This would result in the playability to be compromised during the upcoming club championships.  We realize those two greens don't look great right at the moment, but they are at least providing a smooth putting surface as they continue to recover during this more favourable weather.   We appreciate your patience with some of the struggles during this challenging season.

Rough - The crew caught up with the rough the end of the week for this weekend's play.  The thin rough right on No. 4 fairway was aerified and overseeded Thursday to encourage turf recovery.  Please stay out of roped off area with golf carts while seed establishes.
Bunkers - All bunkers will be fan raked today.
Ground Under Repair - Treat all new sodded areas IN ROUGH as 'ground under repair'.  No. 18 fairway has been overseeded to recover ice damage.  Treat any bare areas on No. 18 as 'ground under repair'.

Course Etiquette - Please remember to repair ball marks and replace divots.  If carrying your golf bag and using the sand tubes, please use on FAIRWAYS ONLY.  Do not use sand tubes or bottles to fix tee divots!!!  It's the golf course maintenance staff responsibility to repair all tee divots on a periodic basis.  Using the sand and seed mix on tees will deplete your available material for fixing fairway divots prematurely!  We also use a different seed on the tees for shadier conditions and quicker germination.

UPCOMING PROJECTS

• Continue dimple seeding greens No. 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17, 18
• Sodding the front area on No. 5 green (low spot)
• Spray Roundup to control weeds in tree beds
• Seed driving range (Wed 9:30 to close) 

Have a great round!