A Personal Note To The Unsung Heroes

This blog has nothing to do with The Royal Mayfair Golf Club and is much more personal in nature. I want to recognize and pay tribute to the those superintendents that can maintain smaller golf facilities with limited resources and still present a course in great condition and is fun to play. Some of them are 9 holes, some of them are shorter 18 hole courses. You know who you are. Generally they are located in a rural setting but sometimes they can be found within the city limits. I have a very close association with one such club. That course will close permanently after 23 years of operation. The City of Edmonton has grown around it and it will soon become a new residential community. If you know me then you are well aware that Pioneer Meadows is the course and that my wife Jennifer has been the superintendent there for 20 years.

Course closures in this area (Alberta) are very rare and I realize that this has been a common occurrence throughout the US but this one hits home. I've experienced the growth of Pioneer Meadows through the trials and tribulations that my wife, her Turf Care team and the management have gone through over the years. When I say every penny counted I mean it. Almost to the very end. The Edmonton market is very competitive and Pioneer Meadows suffered under the perception of being "too short" or "too easy". Maybe the marketing failed. I don't know but I'm a fairly good golfer and I loved playing there. I used all the clubs in my bag, the greens became firm and quick over Jenn's time there and it didn't take 4+ hours to play (assuming you weren't playing in a company scramble buts that's another story).

Believe me when I say that Jenn has had it very tough at times over the years.  I realize we as superintendents all have issues and they become relative to the type of facility you work at but some of the experiences she has gone through made me admire Jenn and others like her even more. The perseverance and commitment was amazing at times. It took a toll on her health. It took a toll on our family. Could she have left? Could she have moved up the career ladder? Was it difficult being married to me? Absolutely. Imagine the conversations we had at home when discussing her club and the clubs that I have worked at, especially now that I'm at The Royal Mayfair. But she stayed so that I could realize my aspirations. We could bring our daughters to Pioneer Meadows whenever we wanted. Our border collies basically had free run of the place. When I came home and needed to vent she listened and offered advice. When I had "turf problems" she helped me through them as only another superintendent could. She was innovative and experimental with new turf care products and cultural management. She used a hand held moisture meter long before anyone had heard of the TDR 300 or POGO. I could go on and on here but I'll stop.

I was out at Pioneer Meadows last evening watching the heavy equipment strip the soil immediately south of the course and it was sad to see. No matter that it's my wife's course that will close. It is upsetting to see ANY green space disappear. Yes it is a golf course but one still surrounded by trees, populated by wildlife, a breeding ground for ducks and geese, rainbow trout in the ponds, etc. etc. Life moves on I suppose. Nice work Jenn and thank you for being such a close colleague over the years. You made me a much better superintendent.

If you recognize yourself or have worked in similar situations I salute you. If you know someone working at a small, limited budget golf course don't forget about them. Go play and support their efforts. There are hidden gems everywhere in this province.

Fairway Aeration Update

 

 



Anybody that has been out on the course this week (which is many considering the great weather) knows that Turf Care is currently core aerating the fairways. This process is very disruptive, messy and time consuming. The disruption is obvious. Two or three fairways covered in cores and several different cleanup procedures occurring all at once. Until the cores dry there is the matter of mud sticking to equipment, golf cart tires and the bottom of your shoes. Why so much mud? I'm going to be blunt here and it tells of the frustration we are experiencing during this procedure. The only sand in the profile appears to what has been applied in the last 4 years. Actually we have just started to get aggressive with topdressing in the last 2 years. The 2 to 3 inch core we are pulling is mostly dirt. We've known this to be the case for awhile but when you begin to correct the problem it becomes a daunting task. I'm left wondering how this could be at a course of Royal Mayfair's quality. But that's in the past and we have to think of the future.

 

The fairways were very good for the last few years and even up until the middle of last August. With the dry summer some problems were exposed. It was easy to see during periods of long term stress that the turf would suffer. By introducing some agronomic changes and proposed upgrading of the irrigation system we can greatly improve the performance of the fairways. However, they will not magically improve overnight. It will take years of aggressive turf management and then a commitment from both Turf Care and the membership to continue this type of work during every golf season in the future. Turf Care cannot decide that maybe one season we'll just solid tine or maybe a mid-summer topdressing will be skipped. Also, the membership must relax expectations when fairway aeration is underway (or any aeration procedure for that matter). Our great playing conditions do not happen on their own. A cliché yes, but short term pain will result in long term gain.

 

It may appear to the casual observer reading this that our fairways are in rough shape. Far from it but we need to get out in front of future problems given the changing weather, a commitment to deliver outstanding season long playing conditions and the day to day challenges of a golf course that has a very high % of Poa annua throughout the property.

 

I ask that you please be patient with Turf Care as we go through the next week of aeration and heavy sand topdressing. These are long tiring days for all involved. As much as you would prefer Turf Care to be somewhere else at 6:00 pm we need to be here to get the work done. Thankfully the weather is warm and we've experienced no frost delays. Yet. 

 

 

If it was always this dry cleanup would be so much easier. Each fairway is blown off after the sweep. Topdressing follows. The sun is setting so in this case the sand would go down the following day.

 

 

 

September Update From Turf Care

I haven't posted a blog since mid July but it is now time to detail activities on the course over the next month. Following the list of work a couple of turfgrass issues will be discussed. The month of August went very well at the Club. All the events came off without weather related problems. In fact it was the driest August (although very humid for Edmonton) in many years. Since I arrived at the Royal Mayfair in late 2010 the course has not gone through a dry spell until now. This weather has exposed irrigation shortfalls (as it always does) and further reinforced the remaining work required to keep improving the golf course and especially our fairways.

September is typically a month of aeration and this year is no different. Aside from the greens all the tees, approaches and fairways will be core aerated and topdressed. The biggest task, fairway aeration, will begin next week. They will be both solid tined and cored then heavily topdressed in order to begin reducing the compaction and poor drainage problems that have become more than evident throughout the summer. The wet summers of 2011 to 2013 masked underlying problems that need to be addressed moving forward. The greens are scheduled to be aerated in the first week of October (which may include the 29th and 30th of September). 9 holes will be closed each day so that Turf Care can accomplish this work without interruption from frost delays or member play.

Turf Care and Project Work:

• Early fall fungicide application on greens, tees and approaches (preventative).
• Aeration beginning September 8th on fairways with tees and approaches to follow later in the month.
• Sodding of damaged turf in wet areas around a few tee sidebanks.
• Repair the small collar damage behind 14 green.
• Replace a few small repair plugs that didn't survive at the very front of 9 green. Sodding on greens in mid summer heat at a very low mowing height is tenuous at best. The cooler seasons of spring and fall are more suited to that kind of work, when you have the choice that is.
• Leaf sweeping will begin soon. The leaves are quickly changing color and by mid month cleanup should be well underway and will continue until closing.

Projects:

• The largest project is continuation and completion of cartpath paving. The front 9, a continuous path from tee to green on #11 and some extensions on #'s 12, 13 and 15 will be undertaken towards the end of September. Exact start date is still to be determined and you will be notified as to when very soon.
• Removal of rxr ties on the south and east side of the north tee complex at #4. The tee was going to be renovated this fall but that has been delayed for a season or 2. When it is rebuilt a new retaining wall system will be built on the north side of the complex.
• Removal of the rxr tie wall beside the path leading up to #2 green. The need for a wall will be eliminated by moving part of the path into the tree line.
• The promised washroom at #14 tee is to be built in early 2015 and then installed on the course during the summer. Apologies for the delay but the process is in motion.
• Renovation of the nursery as all the turf was used earlier this season.

There are two turfgrass related topics to review. The first is the purplish colored spots on the greens that appear during the onset of cooler weather in the fall and prevails until the turf begins to grow as the soil warms the following May. It is not a disease and not much of a concern. It usually occurs on the strain (or bio type) of Poa annua that is perennial in nature (a tight growing, fine bladed variety with  low seedhead production). A very simple explanation is a buildup of certain sugars in the leaf blade that becomes apparent when chlorophyll is reduced as cool weather arrives. Some of those sugars give the leaf blade the purple/red color you may be noticing.

The second issue is more of a concern. Going back to my previous comments about the soil structure of the fairways, the hot August with little precipitation, high humidity and inadequate irrigation throughout the fairways, we experienced numerous dry areas and the onset of Summer Patch disease. This is not a new problem here but had been very limited in its occurrence in the past. It has run its course but we are dealing with the symptoms. There are patches of damaged Poa annua on many of the fairways. You may have noticed reddish patches of degraded turf quality even close to irrigation sprinklers. This is a root disease that can be mitigated by a healthy root zone. The solution for our fairways is more intensive management and perhaps a preventative fungicide application in future summers. That will depend on the type of weather we are forecast to experience during July and August. A mild September in combination with a recent fertilizer application and the upcoming aeration will certainly help recovery in those areas.