Happy Halloween

It's October 31 and the golf course is now closed.  It was a great season for the maintenance team, the golf course and I hope all the golfer's enjoyed themselves here.

 The annual leaf season insanity is well underway.  The weather has been kind to our leaf clean up thus far with lots of dry sunny days.  The leaves came down a touch later than normal this season which was great news for the later events here such as the Ryder Cup and the Fall Scramble.  ( I'd like to thank both those tournaments for once again supplying me with golf balls for the upcoming season)

Here's a couple photos to provide insight to the leaf madness at Pike Lake.  Kudo's to the maintenance team, it was a long hot summer and the leaf season is always a grueling undertaking.  The trees are roughly 90% bare - so we are almost there!

 

   Here's a photo I'm jealous of.... -->












Other to do's for the fall include our greens aerification process which we started last week on the Lake Course.  We are using the same size of tines as last fall - 7/16 or 11mm.  There's some nice warm sunny days to start off November which will not only make the greens aerification process run smoothly, but we may even get some late growth this fall that will kick start the healing process.  Here's a couple photos that will scare you ... BOO

We also hope to finish the tee deck's on the Lake Course that we've been constructing. Once the leaves are done and we finally have time again - sod will be laid on the tees if the weather is co-operative.  And of course the fall application of fungicides to make sure we have grass to play on again in the spring.  Thanks for the great year and hope to see all of you again in the spring of 2017.  Happy safe winter. 

Long Hot Summer

 

We have reached 2100 views on Pike Lake's Turf Maintenance Blog - I can't believe I have looked at my own blog 2000 times...

It was a long hot summer.  Ideal weather for golfing but not so much for grass growing on golf courses across Southern Ontario.  Throughout the summer I heard horror stories about golf courses losing mass amounts of turf due to water shortages, irrigation pump failures or just simply not able to keep up with the severe drought and high temperatures.

It's a general assumption that if a golf course has an irrigation system then it can be watered at night and everything should be fine, lush n' dandy.  The amount of golf courses that not only have an irrigation system capable of watering their entire property, but also have access to that much water is very small.

Water will one day become the most sought after commodity on the planet. Recently the golf maintenance world has become obsessed with becoming more sustainable. Which means, using maintenance techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities, and animal welfare. Examples being using minimal inputs of water, fertilizer and chemicals.  And not just golf courses, agriculture in general is becoming more sustainable.  And it makes sense. It's more efficient, more cost effective and it's environmentally responsible to be sustainable.

Water and fertilizer inputs are already being heavily regulated in the United States.  There are water regulations here in Canada of course, but they're not as strict as say, California or Nevada where water is not so plentiful.

In order for golf courses to be sustainable it takes understanding and patience from their golfers.  To achieve perfection like you see at Augusta every April takes massive amounts of input. Water, fertilizer, chemical, money, labor, equipment, science, computers you name it.  It takes a lot of these inputs to create and maintain the color green we expect on a golf course these days. Here's August in the summer time when temperatures average around 35 degrees Celsius. Even a supermodel can't stay beautiful 24/7.

This summer I'm sure all of us played a few courses that looked a little worn due to the drought.  Or their greens were a little slower because they can't add any more stress to their putting greens.  Some areas of their golf course maybe even completely fried because they are unable to keep up to the irrigating demands.  The game of golf activists and the USGA are trying to relay to golfers that this is OK and that golfers need to lower their expectations for "future golf".  For example, the 2015 U.S Open at Chamber's Bay.  The USGA chose that course in part to show the public, hey, even the pro's play some brown low input golf courses.  Or the 2014 U.S Open at Pinehurst No. 2.  Pinehurst removed 95% of it's mowed rough and replaced it with natural landscape that requires little to no maintenance and inputs.  The golf course was able to remove 700 sprinkler heads (who has that many too remove in the first place, wow).  They save money on irrigating, chemicals, fertilizer and labor that was normally designated to the maintenance of their rough.

A quote from an article written by Alexander M. Radko in 1977 summarizes the theory of sustainability in regards to golf course maintenance.

" Golf is played on grass, not on color"

It's a lengthy article but it's worth a read.  Especially on rainy days like today.

http://www.the-gtc.co.uk/news_publications/news_archive/green_is_not_great1/

David Hearn Tees It Up

Today, we welcome former Pike Lake junior member, 2016 Olympian and current PGA Tour Professional David Hearn to play a round with Jerry Arthur, Rob Widmeyer and Luke McLellan.  Jerry won the silent auction in July in support of the MLF Memorial Tournament.  Welcome and enjoy the golf course.

Happy Canada Day

Here's a friendly reminder why we should all be thankful for the awesome country we live in and to those who have made it possible.  Happy Canada Day!