Now What?

This was the scene on the golf course late Saturday. Since then it has melted a certain amount but not enough to consider opening for a few more days. When play does resume power carts will likely be held off for a day or two. The drying index is very low and there is sure to be standing water to deal with. As soon as we can get on the golf course the Turf Care staff will be busy removing water, setting up the course and removing the many leaves that have fallen over the last week. I know many of you want to get a few more rounds in before the end of the month so hopefully the weather cooperates over the next few weeks. Fungicide application on greens, tees and fairways will commence as soon as these areas clear off and will continue at various times until the end of October.


IRRIGATION UPDATE:

If you look closely you can see the line designating the 2 inch lateral HDPE pipe that was plowed in on the 9th fairway and then closed over with a large rolling packer. The open holes are sprinkler locations. The 9th hole is finally finished and Alpine Irrigation is now working on the first and second holes although the poor weather has also delayed them for a few days.

This is what it looked like before the rolling. Hopefully all lateral work looks this good moving forward.

On the other hand this is mainline installation work. It is very disruptive and causes delays and interruption to the golf course. The main lines that will be installed in a "loop" around the property will cross 7 fairways and run down the side of several holes. The main lines carry large volumes of water that feed all the lateral lines on every hole. The new mains are much larger than the old system allowing more sprinklers to be used at any moment in time and thus creating a narrower "water window". This is especially important during our short nights of mid summer when we only have approximately 6 hours to irrigate the entire course. We are hoping that mainline work can continue into November if the weather doesn't get too cold.


4th Tee/10th Hole Update:

The area around the 4th tee has been cleared for tee expansion, all construction materials are on site and Ted Locke has revisited the course so that we could review the design of the tee decks enabling us to get maximum use of the new surfaces. This may sound difficult to believe but the front of the blue tee deck was only 3 inches higher than the back of the gold tee. The eye can be easily deceived. What this means is that the two tee decks were sloped upwards, an uncommon situation when hitting from an elevated tee. Instead of a tiered separation of the blue and gold tee decks there will now be one tee surface built with a slight downward slope: a slope you will not notice. Unfortunately the golf course construction company (CTC) hired to complete the work is delayed while they finish work in B.C. Hopefully they arrive before too long. If not the tee will be completed next season.

The bunker on #10 was also part of CTC's project work. The Royal Mayfair Turf Care staff will take on this minor project if necessary. I have gone over the work with Ted Locke and we are confident it can be completed as Ted would like it done. Assuming the weather cooperates. What a difference one year makes! Last season daytime highs were in the low 20's (Celsius) with nighttime lows around 9C.