5 Further Topics Of Discussion

    1.   The Natural Grass Driving Range Tee

          The tee will open for use on Wednesday, May 22nd. It will be mowed at 3/4inches and then lowered to 1/2 inch (our standard fairway height) until we lower the fairway cut to .450 inches for the LPGA event. This height change will occur around the beginning of August which is about the same time we will have to go back to the Turf Hound artificial surface. The grass tee will need several weeks to recover and be in good condition for the CN Canadian Womens Open. There is a trend in range use to configure your divot pattern for easier recovery time. Although I agree with the rationale I'm not going to go into the explanation and description at this time. I will soon post a link that describes all of the above in a much clearer fashion than I can here.

     2.  The Target Greens

          We have purchased a unique walking rotary mower that stripes lawns and by chance the Royal Mayfair Target Greens. What a coincidence. It also cuts quite low so that the target greens will stand out and give you the feel of hitting to an actual green site. As soon as the mower arrives we will insert the mowing of the targets into our maintenance practices. On a side note we will also begin to mark out and cut shorter turf areas around the the 2 new chipping greens. It will take time as we don't want to severely scalp the existing turf.

      3.  Fairway Widening

           The widening of sections of fairways on holes 3, 12 and 13 has begun. In addition we are also expanding the apron cut to the right of the 11th green in order to bring the water into play for short right shots as requested by our architect Ted Locke. For better or worse I like the concept too. We are presently mowing these areas at 1 inch and will slowly lower them to fairway and apron heights. As mentioned previously a slow drop in height will reduce unsightly scalping and severe yellowing of the turf.

      4.  Pro Paths

           I was going to wait until the LPGA agronomist visited the club before proceeding with establishment of the short cut walking paths from tees to fairways but I want them started now for your benefit. If a few need to be moved so be it however I think I have a pretty good idea of what to do. I also called Aaron Franceour (superintendent at Coloniale Golf Club and former assistant superintendent at the Royal Mayfair) for some advice. Aaron was at the club during the 2007 Open. I hope I spelled his last name correctly. Its easier to call him by his nickname: Frenchy.

Now last but certainly not least the final point of discussion: TOPDRESSING

        At the Royal Mayfair I believe there is no more important supplemental cultural practice than consistent bi weekly sand topdressing. I think it is the most important tool we have to establish the correct organic matter content (which will likely vary from any other golf course) that will allow for firm surfaces, assist with water infiltration rates and create a healthy root zone. Even more so than core aeration. Have no fear we will still aerate!! I know you are all glad to hear that. The timing of aeration is a topic for a later blog. We have worked hard on the greens over the last 2 seasons with very positive results. We now need to apply the same practices to our tees, aprons and fairways. Topdressing is more intrusive on greens than anywhere else so it won't have the same impact when applied to other areas of the course. Aside from the greens our goal is to get the other fine cut turf areas to another level not seen before at this golf course. Case in point: Keith Blayney and his staff at the Edmonton Petroleum Club have the finest tee surfaces around. We are close but further work is required. This is all leading up to the following. As members you are accustomed to our topdressing practices but now we plan on increasing the frequency of fairway topdressing too. In addition to the major application in late September we will also begin monthly light sand topdressing in June as part of a program to increase the quality of our Poa annua / Kentucky Bluegrass fairways. Although this August we will skip it for obvious reasons. The application will only take a couple of days as we now own 2 fairway topdressers.  The sand will be irrigated down into the turf canopy during the evening irrigation cycle. The improvement to the fairways will be slow but more noticeable as time goes on. My visit to the Vancouver Golf Club last summer was all the evidence I needed to increase the yearly quantity of sand topdressing. 

I hope you have taken the time to read this blog and as always, I'm available to discuss all matters concerning the course in person, over the phone or by email.

Wade

Next Week And Beyond

I'll start off by saying that I have a myriad of topics to discuss and a lot of information that you, the membership, should know about. Unfortunately one blog would be too long and I doubt it would hold your interest all the way to the end. So I'm going to post 2 blogs today: a point form entry concerning work on the course in the week ahead and another entry discussing some important cultural practices and some LPGA preparation talk. Read at your own convenience.

Next Week On The Course

• Lowering mowing heights on the greens and tees. We are still a few steps away from our lowest mowing height on the greens but we will be there much quicker than in the past.
• Liquid fertilizer application on the fairways with a weed control product added to the solution to eliminate the odd dandelion and some knottweed that is difficult to see on the fairways but is present in certain locations.
• Arbor Care Tree Services will be on the course working at #16 reducing the impact the overhanging poplar branches are having on tee marker positioning and pin locations. It will take a couple of days and some noise until 11 a.m. each morning.
• Following the work on #16 Arbor Care will then cut off any broken or dangerous limbs throughout the course. Please use caution when you are near the boom truck.

Note: The early and deep snow pack last winter did not allow the work to be completed at a more convenient time. Any work we had planned for the elms was also not done thus we now have to wait until November as required by a very strict City bylaw.

• The curbing work is finished and we will be sodding the cart path tie ins beginning on Wednesday. Precast concrete steps will then be added at the 1st and 11th tees. Paving stone side outs are the final piece of the project.
• Maureen and Val will continue with planting bed cleanup. They are about 10 days behind their usual schedule because of the extended winter. It is difficult to give them extra help at this time with the work the Turf Care staff are doing elsewhere. They will start planting in late May and early June.
• Opening the natural grass driving range tee on Wednesday. More on that in the 2nd blog.
• The Legacy Clock will be bolted to the concrete base and powered up on Tuesday.
• Weed control in the rough and alongside treelines. Watch for notification and signage. Please contact me for more information if required (Killex: 2,4-D, MCPP and Dicamba).
• Topdressing greens, tees and aprons. Greens scheduled for Tuesday morning due to the long weekend.

We are off to a great start but there are many loose ends that need to be attended to on our way to reaching our goal of achieving the highest level of conditioning and presentation at The Royal Mayfair.

Wade

LPGA Site Visit And On The Course This Week

Jim Haley from the LPGA visited the course last week to review the Golf Canada site plans on the course, review course conditions and make some fairway and rough adjustments. He also supplied me with specific tee decks and yardages that will be used for the Professionals in August. The changes have been explained to me and I can't say I disagree with the rationale. Be rest assured though that once the tournament has ended we will widen any areas that have been narrowed. Some fairways will actually be widened in spots and there is a good chance we will leave those areas as is. Here are the changes:

Note that for our reference a pace is one normal stride for someone 6 feet tall (a little more for someone vertically challenged like myself).

• Hole #1- the rough will be brought in 6 paces on each side.
• Hole #2- the rough will be brought in on the left side up to and even with the fairway bunker by 12 paces.
• Hole #3- the left side will be narrowed by 6 paces and the right side will be widened by 12 paces from 200 to 300 yards out from the tee.
• Hole #12- the left side will be widened by 12 paces 200 to 300 yards out from the tee.
• Hole #13- the left side past the fairway bunker will be widened by 6 paces.

Jim was pleased with the course conditions and approved of our mowing patterns and practices. The LPGA agronomist will be visiting the club in late May to discuss our cultural practices in more detail. I'm sure we will hear the most used term in present day golf course terminology: "We like it firm and fast". I'll report the results of that visit as well.

We will begin making these changes immediately especially since we need to cut down some rough and now is the time of year to do it. I know the Ladies Open is 3 months away but time flies. Over the next few days you'll notice a lot of white paint on the course. In addition to fairway marking the greens will be adjusted as they tend to get larger at the end of every season.

The pro paths (short cut path for walkers from tee to fairway) will also be established. Jim suggested we wait until the agronomist visits but we are going ahead. They can always be moved if necessary. These paths are for the membership too so there is no sense waiting any longer.

On The Course This Week

• continued curbing work at the 1st and 18th tees
• continued landscaping work, cart path tie-in and step installation
• install water fountains/aerators on the ponds
• clean out and turn on the water feature beside the Golf Shop
• pour the concrete base for the legacy clock
• aerate, overseed and topdress the haul road across the 9th fairway (this same path will be used as a crossing point for spectators, etc. during the Open
• mechanical removal of debris in the ponds and begin weed control practices
• fairway and greens height of cut to be lowered mid week

As for the height of cut on greens we are still a few steps away from our desired cut but it will come quicker than the past few seasons. We are rolling frequently and it is time to apply growth regulators as well.  My thanks to the Turf Care Team for a job well done over the last few weeks. Another busy week lies ahead. Hard to believe we've only been open 6 days. 

All for now,

Wade

Opening Day Notes

The golf club is finally open today at 9:00 am. My staff and I appreciate all the patience you have had over the last week while we were preparing the golf course for play. One week ago the weather was in sharp contrast to what we have experienced over the last few days. It seems the Edmonton area went from late winter to summer in one fell swoop. That +31 C felt pretty good yesterday. The following is a summary of the remaining course prep work and small projects that will be ongoing throughout the month of May.

Remaining course cleanup:

• continuing leaf, branch and grass removal concentrating on tree lines (it didn't help that we had 70 km/hr winds blow through last night either)
• cart path sweeping and washing (hard surface paths)
• cart path leveling and aggregate addition
• a few tee complex areas need additional branch and leaf removal
• the bunkers have been edged and had sand adjusted but we need to touch up a few that were still damp from lingering snow cover
• repair the back of 10 tee gold that was damaged by the contractor over the winter
• clubhouse and golf shop sweep and wash

We concentrated all efforts on the actual course over the last 7 days and now we can attend to those areas listed above. 

Course Projects:

• final cart path work beside the 1st tee
• curbing installed over the next week next to new asphalt paths
• sod tie in and paving stone side out installation at 11 tee, 12 tee, 18 tee 
• renovation/landscaping of side slope between the 1st tee and the new path
• installation of the Legacy Clock beside the Golf Shop
• paving stone patio work at the new Tee House
• install synthetic turf on the bridge over the pond on 18

Over the next few weeks we will be lowering the mowing heights, increasing mowing frequency and keeping the rough in check. You will notice the fairway and green perimeters marked by white paint as we do every spring to help the Turf Care staff with their mowing practices. The LPGA is visiting the course later this week so you may notice some changes that go beyond the usual. As always I will keep you informed of on course changes that may occur.

From all of us at the Turf Care Facility please enjoy the 2013 golf season. Conditions are very good and will improve rapidly judging by the weather forecast.

Regards,

Wade

Update On Course Opening Preparations

Even though the weather has improved dramatically we are not yet ready to open. That day is still set as Thursday, May 9th which is in line with most of the other private clubs in the city. The weather earlier in the week set us back a few days but we are now making up for lost time. The Turf Care staff will be working every day including all weekend to get the course ready for the membership. It may sound hard to believe but there is still snow surrounding several green sites. I'm hoping most of it melts by Monday so we can get to these areas and prepare them for opening.

We plan on starting up the irrigation system tomorrow (Saturday) even though some sprinklers and valve boxes are covered in snow. If we have an issue (meaning a water line break or the need to isolate a line) we will clear the snow away. With the windy, warm weather some areas of the course will need water very soon if not already. If we can move staff away from tank watering and onto other tasks all the better.

You may have noticed the gravel in the parking lot has been swept up. Part 2 of the process is to wash and sweep the lot with a street cleaner very early Monday or Tuesday morning. That will help with the dusty conditions. On Tuesday Answer Asphalt will be base prepping the unfinished section next to the first tee and paving it on Wednesday. Initially we had planned to use paving stone but for a variety of reasons that I won't go into here we decided to stay consistent and not introduce another landscape material to an already "busy looking" warm up green/patio area.

This spring we are verticutting all the rough including tee and green sidebanks to stimulate growth and cleanup the remnants of all the snow mold matting and dust on top of the turf. We'll be open before this process is complete and there will be plenty of loose, old grass that is missed by the sweepers but as we start mowing it will eventually go away. We will not be aggressively managing the fine turf areas until we have a consistent, reliable source of water. Mowing heights will be lowered in accordance with conditions but we do strive to achieve quality playing surfaces as soon as possible.

#4 Green Late Thursday Afternoon

#15 Green Late Thursday

#8 Late Thursday 

Hopefully this is gone very soon. See you out on the grounds this weekend. Wave me over if you need to vent your frustrations.
Wade