Now
that most have been out to play the golf course you have seen just how
unfavourable winter weather can have a negative impact on conditions. What else
is also very visible out there is some of our deficiencies and the one that I
think is the most visible is surface drainage. Clearly any area that
collected water suffered damage. For now I’m just going to focus on the greens
because of course they are our bread and butter. Here's a couple of points of
interest regarding those damaged greens that I believe are some of the
underlining reasons why they suffered through this particular winter.
·
1 Green – Back right section was elevated to increase pinnable
area redirecting surface drainage through the middle right of the green instead
of the original back right run off area
·
3 Green – Re contoured and resurface however middle right and back
left run off location were never graded to allow water to exit the green
·
6 Green – This isn't the first time a green has been killed because
of harsh winters. It happens
·
9 Green – Re contoured and resurface however the green has no
surface drainage. It’s essentially a bowl.
·
14 Green – Middle left section was elevated to increase
pinnable area eliminating one of it’s vital surface drainage locations.
·
15 Green – Recontured and resurfaced to increase surface
drainage just not aggressive enough
·
16 Green – Middle left section was elevated to increase
pinnable area eliminating one of it’s vital surface drainage locations.
·
17 & 18 – In my time here these greens have wintered well
however 17 if you look all it drains to the front but this area is higher and
could be improved through regrading.
Surface
drainage is key to our winter survival here because the ground is almost always
frozen thus stopping all possibility of surface water moving through
infiltration. As the season wined's down this year two musts for me is to address
the surface drainage on 3 and 9 greens. I’m pretty confident that I can resolve
the damaging conditions.
 |
| 1 Green this April drainage path |
So
what’s up with the recovery of the greens. I think we can all be happy with the
results on 6 and can even see the light at the end of the tunnel, 1 and 9 are a
slightly different story. Those two greens clearly show just how by having a
poor growing medium can stunt recovery. The exact same techniques were used on
those greens as were used on 6. The key difference in my eyes is the soil that
is under those greens. While all three are native “push up” greens the material
on six is sandy and the other is a heavy silt/clay high organic combination
which has terrible draining capabilities (There’s that talk about drainage
again).
·
1 Green – A few days of plugging out areas slower to recovery
and the green will be back in play in no time
·
6 Green – A couple of top dressing’s and patience is all that’s
needed for this one.
·
9 Green – The reality is this green will not be one of our
strongest for sometime. We have slit seeded it again in two directions and will
see results in a week. The right side that was sodded last year is not allowing
seed to establish so I have just enough sod from our nursery to repair that. Continuous
plugging will also be employed. When the green does open there still will be
damage but at least this green has spots for pinning.
·
Practice Greens – Once night time temperatures start to hover
around 13C (55F) we will seed these greens and have them ready for the end of
June.
Below
are a couple pictures to show that things will recover, remember how 10 green
turned out last year.
 |
| 1 Green May 15, 2015 |
.JPG) |
| 10 Green May 20, 2014 |
Yes
the golf course is not in the condition that we all would like at the moment but
I’m confident that sooner than later it will be back to meeting expectations.
Just like how the phoenix rose from the ashes the greener grass will grow
through the death of winter.
Jay
Sisko
Golf
Course Superintendent
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