Irrigation Project And Course Update

The irrigation project is moving along but will be held up for a day or two by the heavy rains. Alpine Irrigation will trench in a run of mainline alongside the north treeline on 15 and then cross over in front of the 15th tees and connect to the section of mainline that was installed across the 14th fairway earlier in May. By Friday they will also begin working on the lateral pipe lines and sprinkler placement on the 15th hole. As per usual the hole will play as a par 3. It had been suggested that there might be some temporary hole closures during the remainder of the project but I don't believe this will be necessary based on the procedure we have followed so far. After 15 is completed the next hole to be worked on will be #14 with mainline work continuing across the 13th hole and down the north side of #12. This pipe will  connect to the pipe that is presently supported out of the ground in front of the 12th tee. We will update the final phases as Alpine finishes the major work on #14.

To reiterate previous discussions please realize that this work is akin to major surgery. It is invasive and time is required for the golf course to recover. By time I don't mean a few weeks. It will take months. In fact we will likely be mending certain areas for the remainder of the season. Trench lines might settle, some sprinklers will need more leveling, sod that doesn't survive will need to be replaced and seeded areas take time to grow in. Good weather will help as will the efforts of the Turf Care staff. Alpine will need to finish up certain areas in addition to their install work but we want them to get the system in the ground, get out of the way of the membership, do their final touchups and leave. The new Toro system is active on the entire front 9 and on holes 16 and 17 to date.

The work is not pretty and is difficult to accept for some. The alternative was to keep irrigating with an outdated antiquated irrigation system that was limiting the future of the property. We have taken a step backwards in 2017 but have set ourselves up to take big steps forward beyond this season. At present the fit and finish of The Royal Mayfair are not what we are accustomed to but we are now at the forefront of irrigation management. 

Golf Course Update

• The heavy rain and strong winds have left the course wet and in need of a major cleanup. At least 6 large trees have come down and there are a few hanging branches. A tree company will need to assist with some of the work.
• The sodded greens are progressing well considering how quickly we put them back in play. They will be slower than the others but will get progressively smoother over the coming weeks.
• Recovery on damaged fairways is slow. The type of turf on our fairways (predominately Poa annua) needs time and warm weather. That warm weather has finally arrived and as night time temperatures stay above 10C the Poa will finally begin to respond.
• With the Turf Care team having to embark on extensive irrigation repairs something has to give. We are stretched to the limit having to look after the usual tasks in addition to the extra work. As a result we are behind on trim work, tree line rough mowing and bunker improvements such as edging and sand adjustment.
• We are also behind on our topdressing of greens and aprons (not for long though). Mowing heights will be lowered next week on the greens and fairways. 

All for now

Change Of Plans

As the title suggests there has been a change in regards to the recovery plan for the 6th and possibly 2nd green. Our initial idea was to aerate, overseed with a new quick germinating bentgrass and give the Poa annua a chance to recover as it always does. Unfortunately the golf season being as short as it is in Edmonton does not lend itself to the type of recovery we initially wanted. This thinking does not synch with member expectations. Therefore we will sod the 40% of the green that is damaged on #6 on Friday, give it a a few days to recover and put it back into play. The end result will be better than waiting until the end of June for a slow recovery. The 2nd green is more difficult to deal with. There is less damage overall but it isn't concentrated so it may be a sod project completed in a few stages. That decision will come in the next 24 hours.

The warmup green will be ready for use by the May Long Weekend. The putting green will be aerated and overseeded and allowed to recover over time.

Note to consider:

• Newer golf courses with bentgrass greens and or tees and Kentucky bluegrass fairways will fair better than older courses with predominantly Poa annua surfaces after winters such as we just experienced. There isn't an older Poa golf course in our area that hasn't had some degree of damage on some area of their course.
• We came out of winter in March, April was terrible and now we have a warm beginning to May. The grace period of April which in the last few years has been very helpful to turf recovery was non existent. Overall conditions will improve daily. Keep in mind the course was covered in snow on April 24th. Nature does not care. It is what it is and no amount of money or expertise can change that. 

The irrigation work is progressing well as Alpine will move to the 16th hole on Friday. The 3rd hole reopens as the Par 5 but the back tees may need to be moved up to the whites for a few hours. The Turf Care team has been working on larger repair areas over the front 9 but we are changing that plan as well. We are now going to start on the first hole, complete all the repairs possible at this time then move to the 2nd hole and so on. The repairs are required because Alpine could not do a proper job of backfilling and sodding in cold wet and then ultimately very cold conditions in early to mid November. That was the trade off for doing work in the fall as opposed to the summer months. The repair work Alpine is doing now  on the back 9 should require much less attention from the Turf Crew.

Front 9 Opens And Irrigation Timeline

The Front 9 opens today after a week of nice weather that allowed Alpine Irrigation a much needed head start to finish the work on #4 and enough of #3 to open it as a par 4 for a few days. They will be working out in front of the tee and on the tee itself for the remainder of the week. Please advance around the corner to find the tee blocks approximately 400 yds. (white, blue and gold tees) and 300 yds. (red tees) from the 3rd green. Be mindful of the workers in this area and realize that there will be constant motion and noise as they install pipe, wire and sprinklers.

The Club will publish a work progress report from Alpine in the very near future but for now I can outline the next few weeks of work:

• After #3 is completed they will work on #16 and also extend a short mainline pipe down the south side of the 16th hole to the east of the 17th tee complex.
• #17 will be next and a section of mainline will be installed down the south side of the 18th hole and join up with previously installed pipe behind the 13th green.
• The 15th hole will then be worked on with a section of mainline connecting to the 16th hole, running up the north side of #15 and connecting to the mainline (previously installed across the 14th fairway) near the Thor Guard location south of the 15th tee.

During this work holes will be shortened and possibly closed for very short periods if necessary (unlikely but no promises). Expect holes to play as Par 3's such as occurred last fall on #9. 

The Turf Care team will be continuously working on front 9 repairs over the foreseeable future. The task is daunting but we are making some headway. Large areas take priority and then hole by hole work following. The next few months will involve a lot of sod patching, aerating and verticutting/overseeding throughout. Warm weather will certainly speed up the recovery timeline.

Front 9 Notes:

• Greens 2 and 6 are recovering albeit slowly. They will be constantly top dressed and many smaller spots will be plugged out. Larger areas will be monitored over several weeks and it is possible some sod may be used to help with recovery. The greens will stay in play but lower your expectations for the time being.
• There is some plugging required on greens 7 and 8 that will commence soon.
• The new fairway overseer purchased by the Club has arrived and will be put to good use on damaged locations. The Turfco Triwave 60 (google search for info) is now part of an ongoing program to introduce bentgrass on the fairways as we introduce a turf species to compete with the Poa annua. Our approaches are quickly becoming bentgrass dominant so it is hoped we can have some success on the fairways over time.
• Turf from the 8th fairway is being used to replace dead sod or to compliment existing turf on fairways mainlines such as the mainline crossing the 18th hole. We will sod the area on the 8th hole in the near future.
• Haul road repairs (specifically down the side of #9) will commence when the irrigation project is completed.

Last Note:

We have limited options for irrigation scheduling at present. As a result some watering will begin before dusk and run into the early mornings. The new system is slowly coming online and we should have automatic control soon which will help with front 9 turf recovery and also keep us from going insane . Lol. All for now.

Back 9 In Good Early Season Condition. Front 9 is Bruised

Now that decent spring weather seems to have arrived it is clear as to how the golf course has come out of winter and the cold, wet April we just experienced. The back 9 is in good condition aside from some small fairway damage caused by standing water that froze in mid winter in a few low areas on 15 fairway. There is evidence of the ski trails and other traffic that will recover as it warms up. On that note the Back 9 will open on Tuesday as planned. Some mainline work was completed across the 14th and 16th holes last week so that there would be less interference with play once Alpine begins work after finishing the 3rd and 4th holes. They will be working on the remainder of the front 9 (#3 and #4) over the next 2 weeks. Expect the 3rd hole to be shortened as sprinklers are installed before the turn on the fairway and at the tee. There are several locations on the front 9 that need serious repair work to bring things up to our standards. The right side of #2, the right side of #5, the right side of #6 and a few areas on #9 need more prep work and sodding. That work begins this week with the Turf Care team taking the lead. Smaller spots will be repaired after the large areas are taken care of.

The front 9 has experienced varying degrees of damage that is now very apparent. The 2nd and 6th greens have exposure damage that occurred due to a lack of snow cover after the tarps were over inflated. The existing snow cover slid off a bit and the lack of further snow over the last part of winter robbed the turf of insulation from some extreme cold that followed. These 2 greens are overseeded and covered and the plan is to put them into play when we open the front nine on May 10th. Expect extra aeration, overseeding and heavy topdressing on these two greens.

Damage on the ridge at 6 green

Snow shoe, footprints and ski trail damage

Standing water that became ice in February

The fairways on 2, 6, 7 and 9 have seen ice damage, traffic damage and standing water damage. The type of turf on these fairways (Poa annua) is fine if their is enough snow and no areas of standing water in February. Unfortunately last February was very warm then very cold. It is obvious to see footprints from snow shoers, ski tracks and areas of ice or standing water. It affected this area of the course worse than others because of the tendency of theses holes to hold water. Same issue in the summer after heavy rains but there is no draining in the winter, only ice formation. Recovery will take time but we will also begin a bentgrass overseeding program on these holes. This was planned on all fairways over the next few years but we now need to expediate the process out of necessity. Hopefully we will see bentgrass begin to establish and compete with the annual bluegrass (Poa annua).

The practice green also suffered from low temperature damage. We didn't over inflate the tarp on that green but the snow cover was greatly reduced in February. The warmup green was damaged by a lack of insulation and more mice damage. We can no longer depend on adequate snow cover and trying to keep the mice at bay. The warmup has been resodded with turf from our nursery. We used the creeping bentgrass section as we need to take a different approach to get this green through the winter if the climate is changing. One only needs to look at the chipping greens to see how well bentgrass can survive tough winters. They were subject to the same conditions as the other two practice greens and they look great.

Later this week look for another blog outlining Alpine Irrigation's Back 9 installation schedule.


IMPORTANT COURSE NOTE:

• The course washrooms and drinking fountains are closed indefinitely as the 1 inch water line has been cut by irrigation installation work. We have begun to fix each cut pipe as they are flagged by Alpine. Until all the repairs are finished portable washrooms will be in use at 3/6, 14 and 17.

4 Tee and Billy Bunker Work

Aside from the major work with the irrigation system there are 2 small projects to be started later this spring. The north set of tees on #4 will be renovated and as touched on in an earlier blog post we will be testing a new bunker base that will drastically reduce sand wash out and contamination after heavy rainfalls.

A new brick retaining wall will replace the old railroad tie wall on the north edge of the gold tee. The entire right side of the blue and golds will be moved north creating a slightly different angle to the shot and both tees will be one level with the slope between the 2 tees removed resulting in some much needed extra square footage. Par 3 tee surfaces should typically be quite large to allow for divot recovery. That tee is one of our smallest.

The wall will be moved north and replaced with Allen Block. The blue and gold surfaces will be one level.

CTC does not want to begin work on the tee until they are sure the frost is out of the ground and they can begin the wall construction on a solid foundation. That means a project start in early to mid May. There is a 2 week timeline from start to finish (sodding) and then approximately one month of turf establishment. The tee is projected to be back in play by the end of June. The north tees will remain open until work begins.

The Billy Bunker work cannot begin until night time temperatures stay well above freezing and conditions are dry. CTC is doing the work at a reduced cost for the Royal Mayfair as part of a licensing agreement with Billy Bunker. The Royal Mayfair only needs to fund materials for 10,000 ft2 of work. CTC is providing the labour at no cost. We will be doing two bunkers on the 2nd hole, the bunkers on #16 and the bunkers at the 5th green. Those bunkers give us the most trouble during storms and will provide a good test of this technique. Visit www.betterbillybunker.com for a look at the procedure. The holes will remain open while CTC works on the bunkers. The work is also slated to begin in May.


GOLF COURSE UPDATE

• We were finally able to begin clean up on drier areas of the course this week however the western sections of the course (4,15,16) are still wet and even frozen in the shaded tree lines.
• Heating covers are on greens 2 and 6. This will give us a better idea as to the extent of recovery required in May. The greens will remain in play but expect some thin patches and more intensive turf management than the other greens would normally receive.
• The Poa annua on the course is basically in "neutral" until we get some sunshine and normal temperatures. Please keep your expectations in line with the cool early season spring weather.
• The warm up green will be completely resodded next week. It did not fare well this winter. We will need to rethink how we can get this green to survive less than ideal winters and the mouse problem. Our nursery sod will help as it has a much higher percentage of creeping bentgrass, a much hardier turf for our climate. At the same time new irrigation will be installed around the perimeter. The green should reopen in mid May.

Next Weeks Blog Topic: A review of the  irrigation cleanup required on the front 9 and what is in store for the remaining holes.

Course Update and Irrigation Project Review

After another winter of fluctuating temperatures and low snowfall totals we now have a clear picture of the spring course conditions. We removed the covers on the greens earlier this week and most of them have wintered well. However there is some damage to greens 2, 6, the putting green and the warmup green. I can explain the putting green (water got under the eastern edge of the cover during an early February thaw and created a solid ice layer). We will have to dam that area next fall by inserting the cover into the ground. As for repairs the green is big enough that we can keep it open while it recovers.

 The warmup green was once again the victim of mice even though we had mouse poison laid down. Something (maybe even squirrels) got under the cover and chewed the plastic lines on the north edge of the green cutting off fresh air to 2/3rds of the green. The extra line we added on the south edge was not chewed and that turf is fine. By early next week we will have a better idea as to the extent of the damage and how we are going to get the green repaired as quickly as possible. That green still needs new irrigation installed and we had planned on removing the perimeter ridge that has built up over years of topdressing at the same time. A faster solution than waiting for turf recovery might be to resod the entire surface while that work is ongoing. The section of our nursery that we would use for this green has come through in good shape. Stay tuned.

Greens 2 and 6 have areas of damage that are difficult to explain. We think we know why and our air exchange procedure may be to blame. Again we will need to guard against the same thing happening next winter. I caution anyone from thinking that the covers might not be the best solution just because we had a few issues. This is year 2 of the complete covering of the greens and obviously there are still have some kinks to iron out. I firmly believe the covers are the most dependable method of getting our predominantly annual bluegrass (Poa) greens through the winter. As for recovery it is our preference to not sod these greens and with our help have them recover over time.

The rest of the course has wintered fairly well. The tees are fine and the fairways look good. There may be some damage in low lying areas due to ice buildup during the winter thaws but that remains to be seen. Also the snowmobile left some scarring when we were trying to groom the cross country ski tails in less than ideal snow conditions but things will recover quickly. There is extensive leaf and debris cleanup required too. The early October snowfall and ensuing wet weeks interrupted our usual thorough fall cleanup.

The irrigation project should be completed by the end of June. Holes #3 and #4 remain to be completed on the front 9 and there is some considerable cleanup work required from both Alpine irrigation and the Royal Mayfair Turf Care team on holes #1 to #7 and #9. Most of the work is trench related alongside the perimeter of each hole. Some settling occurred over winter and the sod that was replaced by Alpine in late October and early November needs further attention. It certainly isn't "Royal" out there but it will get repaired properly as the weeks pass. Please abide by all signs, plywood paths, stakes and roped off areas when you do get on the golf course.

There is still some mainline installation when Alpine begins work on the back 9. They will cross 2 fairways but most of the open trenching will be alongside treelines. The majority of the project will involve far less disruptive plowing and directional drilling. Over the next few months expect temporary tee closures and possible short day to day hole closures if necessary. We will take all steps possible to minimize course disruption but do expect some inconvenience.

I don't want to sugar coat anything about the content in this blog. It is going to be a difficult few months for all involved. Please accept my apologies but this important project needs to get finished as quickly as possible. Alpine will begin work in earnest on April 17th by which time the ground should be ready to support heavy equipment.

Communication from Turf Care to all other departments and especially the Membership is a very important goal for us. Now that the season has arrived expect a weekly blog from myself and once the course opens, daily updates from the Golf Shop and/or Club Management. My last request: reread this blog and make sure as many members as possible are in the "know".  Feel free to call me anytime for more detailed information. My cell number can be obtained through the Club office. Follow me on twitter @MayfairSuper for more up to date information and pictures.

In advance, I thank you for you patience.

Wade Peckham

Bunkers: Sand And Future Renovations?

A large component of the LREP that began in the fall of 2010 was bunker renovation and the installation of new sand sourced out of Idaho. To date I think we can agree that it is a great product. It sets up firm and doesn't washout unless we are faced with heavy rain events. Unfortunately that can be a common problem during our summer storms. The drainage works well (given enough time) but design issues sometimes result in a lot of water rushing into the bunkers over a short period of time. When that occurs the layer of bunker sand washes out and then the clay liner begins to erode and mix with the bunker sand. When the Turf Care team repairs this damage we remove as much of the contaminated sand as possible. But we can't get all of it. Over the years the fine washed out clay begins to change the look and playability of the affected bunkers.

A perfect example of severe contamination after a thunderstorm at the 2nd green

Here is a list of issues that must be considered when discussing our bunkers and what the future holds:

• labour to repair bunker washouts is diverted from other daily tasks
• budgeting for new sand is required for day to day maintenance (easy) and storm repairs (not so easy)
• the sand being sourced out of the Idaho is subject to the value of our Canadian Dollar
• shipping from Idaho is very expensive (by the way, shipping from B.C. is also expensive)
• the type of sand we desire at the Royal Mayfair is not found in Alberta
• each storm causing washouts degrades the sand a certain % depending on severity

Every golf course faces some or all of the above issues. Bunker sand doesn't last forever and eventually needs to be replaced just due to normal wear and tear. Washouts complicate things. Not all bunkers "age" at the rate as some wear down faster than others. Turf Care does what we can to slow this process. We are now entering the 7th year with the new sand but we need to consider a complete replacement in about 5 years from now. That may also be the time to consider the design of our bunkers. Do they "work" as intended? Do we have too many? Are they in the correct location? What can we do using new technology to dramatically reduce washouts? I don't want to answer these questions aside from introducing a new bunker lining technique that is working wonders at many golf courses in Canada and the USA. The Club has decided to test the technique this spring on a few of our most troublesome bunkers. If it works long term and gets through our tough winters it may be a solution to a long standing problem and something to be considered in any future bunker work.

Before I name any companies the process involves removal of all sand, inspection and/or repair of subsurface drainage (not a problem with our bunkers), the installation of a layer of small aggregate gravel over the entire base of the bunker, the spraying of a special polymer over that gravel which creates an almost concrete like porous base, a thorough quality inspection and then new sand added to the bunker. This gravel/polymer based process dramatically reduces washouts. I've seen testimony after testimony from golf courses all over the USA give glowing approvals of the technique.

Everyone watched the Ryder Cup last summer. Hazeltine's bunkers were renovated prior to the event in just this manner. What many people don't know is how much rain fell leading up to the Ryder Cup. Their superintendent, Chris Tritabaugh, @ct_turf on twitter, remarked how well the bunkers stood up to repeated assaults from heavy rains. Priddis Greens in Calgary has also introduced this new system to some of their bunkers and they are holding up well to date. We will be using the "Billy Bunker" system in a few of ours. CTC will be doing the work in agreement with the company. Go to www.billybunker.com and review their site for a description and pictures.

As we get closer to spring we will review the Billy Bunker work again in a little more detail. Remember that the irrigation project will commence as soon as possible and the 4th the will be rebuilt when the snow leaves. As for those wondering about the golf course we are wintering well to date.

Family Day is coming up. Be sure to visit the Club and enjoy some skiing, skating and comfort food at the Tee House.