Hole 11, Par 6 Tees Renovation

The longest hole in Canada, the par 6, 11th hole had its par 6 tees reconstructed this fall. During the summer we installed our new RV park, and a majority of the dirt that was excavated out of the former driving range, was brought to 11 tee. This tee was not very nice before. It was small and would get run down quite easily. If hole 11 is our signature hole, let's make it signature and be of good quality.

Once all the dirt that could be dumped there was, we then had the owner come in with his large farm John Deere tractor. He rototilled it all so that it was smooth and shaped them into tee boxes. HIs tractor is much larger than ours, and the power from the pro was able to break up all the big sod chunks.

Rototilled soil

We don't have any fancy laser levelling box scarper or anything like that. We make do with the equipment and resources we have on hand, unless absolutely necessary to rent something.

Once the soil was rototilled, it was then packed down using the tractor by driving on it, and pulling a set of harrows behind it to remove any clumps. This worked pretty well. Again, not as great as some of the fancier equipment that can be used, but it worked for us. The next step was installing irrigation lines and heads.

We began by using our 3 point hitch, hydraulic excavator to dig the trench for the lines. We soon found out that this was taking way too long. It is not the fastest piece of equipment. It took about 4 hours to dig less than 80 ft.

3pt hitch excavator

This was one of those times when it was worth it to rent a piece of equipment to improve efficiency. We rented a ride on ditch witch trencher. This machine cost roughly $150 for half the day.

Ditch Witch trencher

With it being a ride on, we finished this 500ft irrigation line in about half an hour. We rented it for half a day, so we trenched a few more things that needed to be done on the course. This was a win for sure. We weren't wasting labour hours to sit on the excavator for couple days. This was well worth the money, and completing other projects with it was great.

Once the lines were trenched, it was time to lay the pipe. We did not do a loop system in this particular area, as it would not work. It was a straight line with 5 heads on it. All 5 heads would not run at once, as we are a manual irrigation control. Once everything was installed, we backfilled the trench and seeded it. This was a fall seeding, so we are waiting to see in the spring how it turns out.

Sand Holding Area

Today we received 31 cement "lego" blocks from a cement company in town that was moving to a new location, so we got a good deal on them. Currently the sand goes in a staff parking area, and it is not ideal as it takes up space. With these blocks, they will be created into a rectangle sand holding area. We did not put down concrete under it, although it would be nice. The costs are too much at the current time. The ground that it there currently will work just fine.

Once the 2 flatbed trucks arrived with the blocks, they were put into place using a crane.

Crane picking up 2 blocks at once

It took about an hour and a half to have everything placed properly, but once it was finished it looked really good.

Finished product

This is nice to have, as we now have somewhere to put our sand.

Work has to be fun right?

A little fun today. While one of my employees was irrigating using the valve key, I stopped in to check on how he was doing. His response "I am waiting to turn off 8 so I can turn on 6". (Yes we have manual irrigation). He was practicing his putting with the valve key while no golfers were around. Can't always be serious at work. You must have some fun. Thanks for your hard work Elijah!

Black Turfgrass Atenius

I noticed some weird dry spots on #13 green, but upon using the moisture meter to check, these were not dry spots. I kept my eye on it for a couple days and I noticed that birds were pecking the turf, eating something within. I went over to take a look and noticed little black beetles all over the green. Upon inspection, these looked to be Black Turfgrass Atenius beetles.This green is particularly thatchy, so that is part of the problem. They like to burrow into the thatch.

I went out the next day and sprayed an insecticide to kill the beetles. The next week, it all looked fine again. After that, we focused more on heavier thatch removal through verticutting, and that has seemed to help the issue.

Update: 2018 season we had no issues with the beetle, as we were controlling thatch more.

Weird looking "dry spots"

Spring is in the Air

The greens have come through winter in great shape! Such a relief as that was my first winter fungicide application while being a Superintendent. I have to say that Trilogy worked great for us on all greens. There is a distinct line where the sprayer was turned off. 

18 green first cut of the year

Flooding

Each spring the course floods on the lowers areas. Welp brook runs through the course and during the spring melt, all the water from the properties up stream comes through the golf course. It fills our irrigation reservoir, but overfills it. Normally holes 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 18 flood.

18 Fairway

11 Fairway

We have an arsenal of pumps that are used to get the water off the course ranging from 2" trash pumps to 6" floating pumps. These constantly run to put the water back into the brook, once it goes down.

6" floating pump

10 green just poking out of the water 

Equipment to Speed Up Recovery

With the greens not being great this season due to the desiccation and snow mold damage, we were happy to try any other equipment to help speed up the process of recovery.

Slit Seeder

We demoed the Turfco Triwave slit seeder on our worst green, #14. This machine worked very well. It creates a slit in the ground and then drops the seed into it. Following the seed being dropped, there are rollers on the back which push the soil back together afterwards. The slits could've been closed a little more by using a greens roller afterwards, but we left them and it worked. 

Turfco Triwave in Action

Slit seeder rows growing in

Sweep N Fill Brush

Another piece of equipment we demoed (and eventually bought) was the Sweep N Fill brush. This brush rotates while you pull it, flicking the turf.