Recovery Work And What's Ahead In September

The "tear down" of the tournament infrastructure has progressed well and should be complete by early next week. Aside from a rogue semi driver everything has gone according to plan. The major rain storm late Thursday has delayed work out on the course but the crews were able to take care of other areas on Friday.

We have already begun some repairs on the course which has come through very well thanks to the dry weather during tournament week. Even a light rainfall would have turned the spectator areas outside the ropes into a muddy mess. The transition zone between approaches and fairways has been core aerated with our greens aerator. Double cutting of fairways for 10 days resulted in a lot of compaction about 25 to 30 yards out from the greens. The spectactor and equipment cross paths are being solid tine aerated at present. They will be fine until we begin our fall aeration program. The paths that were worn down outside the ropes will be solid tine aerated and verticut once Golf Canada is finished on the property. Again these paths are in pretty good shape as it stands right now. We have some ruts to repair from the crane and the semi but they are out of play.

The obvious signs of damage are the areas under the suites, grandstands and tents. It will take a while for the color to return to normal but these zones should be okay. The road across #9 and the gold tee on #12 are another matter. The wood decking has been removed from #12 tee and it looks bad. It will need resodding. We will assess the situation and decide on what recovery plan to implement in a few days. The road across #9 will be resodded after all equipment has left the property.

The driving range setup and repair has been delayed somewhat as the staff was pumping water and is still pushing sand on the golf course. The plan is to stay on the mats and begin work on the natural grass surface. More on that next week.

Anything else you may notice on greens or tees is basically some first aid to repair zones that have thinned out for a variety of reasons, most of them having to do with the Tournament.


September Changes - fall preparations begin at this time of year:

• mowing heights will come up on greens, aprons and fairways
• walking mowers are replaced with riding mowers due to labour shortages that happen every year in early September
• mowing frequency is also reduced as growth rates and turf recovery slow down
• leaves will begin to fall and the long cleanup will start
• tees, approaches (or aprons if you prefer) and fairways will be aerated as the month progresses
• greens will be aerated in October however we will mini / solid tine next week and our light topdressing program will resume. 

Finally, NO MAJOR PROJECTS are scheduled for the remainder of the season. Good news for all after a very busy summer.

Wade