#8 Drainage

The 1st stage of the drainage project on #8 has been completed for almost 2 months now and what a dramatic difference. What was once our wettest hole, with good portions of the year being unplayable or accessible, is now our driest! Even after some of the substantial rains we've received early this month, 4.1 inches in 4 days, equipment can still access this area immediately following such rainfall resulting in no damage. We are still restricted to cart paths, but below is a couple of pictures from today. 

Dec 5th, my cart is able to drive in the middle of the fairway causing no damage

Vehicle damage to turf before the drain and no damage after the drainage

The next stage is to continue the mainline up and into the bunkers while continuing the slit drains up to the beginning of the approach. Towards the tee in the rough, we must continue to topdress the area with sand to dilute the silt that is present. If we install the slits drains in this area prior to  the build up of the sand, the silt will cover the sand slit and dame the water from penetrating. I've attached a few photo's below going through the installation process:

Mainline excavation - Bill Michiel on the backhoe, Trevor Jones manning the laser lever and Aaron Mansbridge acting as the grader/clean out

More of the mainline excavation

Slit drain trenches - Aaron operating the trencher, Trevor controlling depth, Cam Ralfs cleaning up the spoils and Sam is inspecting the mainline

Cleaning up the trenches - Aaron demonstrating the final grade process to Erik Abbot 

Brock Tingey operating the controls to backfill the mainline trench with fairway sand. Trevor in the background tying in the 2" slit drain tile into the mainline.

Addtional mainline backfilling - Brock on controls, Cam skillfully driving the tractor

Erik and Ray Wynne backfilling the slit drain trenches and Brock is compacting the sand

More backfilling of the slit drains

All trenches backfilled and cleaned up - Sam is performing a final inspection

Sam is taking a break after we're all done a hard weeks worth of work

In the early spring, the mainline will be topped up with soil and seed while the slits will naturally grow over finishing the project. 

Frost delays, a sunny winter day nightmare

With winter on the horizon and having already experienced a few frost delays, I would like to remind everyone for the reasoning of course and/or hole closures. Turf is made up of 90% water and during periods of frost this water freezes in the cell causing the structure of the plant to be very brittle. If turf is walked on under these conditions the cell walls will shatter and can cause the plant unneeded damage and stress. If one walked on a green with frost, it can cause irreversible damage that can potentially kill the turf. 

When frost is present, the grounds team will notify the Golfshop of course conditions and potential openings right away. Once the course is ready for play, the grounds team will once again notify the Golfshop of any temporary greens or hole closures due to persistent frost. The grounds team will periodically re-assess the course throughout the day with hopes of re-opening holes for play. Our goal is to allow golfers to play as soon as possible while playing as much golf on as many regular greens as possible. I've attached a few photos below of frost damage provided by Larry Gilhuly from the USGA. 

 Damaged caused by ducks walking on a frosty green

Damage caused by golfers walking on a frosty fairway

GolfBC Introduces Family-and Beginner-Friendly “Quik Tees”

The GolfBC “Quik Tees”. Painted a vibrant orange colour and placed approximately 150-200 yards from the green, the new tee boxes will shorten the courses to approximately 3,000 yards, while maintaining the established par of each hole.

The new “Quik Tees” will offer an opportunity for golfers of all abilities to play a championship golf course, making golf more accessible and fun. The “Quik Tees” are geared perfectly towards:

• junior or senior golfers looking for a shorter layout
• beginner golfers learning the game
• families looking to enjoy the game together
• avid golfers looking for a different challenge
• golfers wanting to practice their short game
• golfers looking to play a quick twilight round

Getting started in golf can unfortunately be intimidating and difficult for new or young players. GolfBC's new Quik Tees painted "Ricky Fowler Orange" relieves some of that pressure by making the holes a lot shorter, and allowing for an easier, more private tee shot from much closer to the hole. At GolfBC one of the highest priorities is to grow the game, and the Quik Tees will help achieve that goal.
GolfBC courses set up with “Quik Tees” are: Arbutus Ridge Golf Club, Olympic View Golf Club, Nicklaus North in Whistler; Mayfair Lakes in Richmond, Furry Creek near Lion's Bay (coming soon); The Okanagan Golf Club (The Bear and The Quail) in Kelowna and Gallagher’s Canyon (and The Pinnacle) in Kelowna.

We are taking control of our future and evolving what we offer to meet the needs of existing as well as new clientele. The Quik Tees help break down a few significant barriers for golfers and soon to be golfers. In Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code (a must read by anyone who coaches) there is a section that discusses what ignites people, and how once ignited they will walk through walls to participate and work to succeed in that activity. The Quik Tees allow everyone to perhaps hit that first green, perhaps make that first birdie and nurture those initial ignitions and maybe even rekindle some.

Golf is an excellent activity that families can enjoy together while getting fresh air and exercise. Our Quik Tees offer junior or beginner golfers an option to play the game in a more relaxed and enjoyable environment, while their more advanced playing partners can still enjoy the challenge of their regular tee.

The GolfBC Group has been dedicated to growing the game of golf since 2005, offering a variety of programs throughout the season. In addition to the new “Quik Tees”, GolfBC promotes “Kids Play Free at GolfBC”, “Family Golf Day”, “Beginner Friendly Certification” as well as “Take-a-kid to the Course Week” and “Get Golf Ready in 5 Days” (in partnership with the NGCOA). For more information on these programs, visit http://www.gbcgolfacademy.com/.

Contact:
Jason Lowe
General Manager, Arbutus Ridge Golf Club
250.743.5100 ext. 34
jlowe@golfbc.com

2012 Arbutus Ridge Open Results

We posted the basic results of our 2012 Arbutus Ridge Open on our facebook page here: www.fb.com/arbutusridgegolf. For those who missed the awards presentation, we will call you shortly so you can collect your prizes!

Toronto Star Features Arbutus Ridge Golf Club, 2012

Aeration

As mentioned before in earlier blogs, the necessary evil of aeration is extremely beneficial to turf health. I have also attached this link from the USGA regarding aeration and it's necessity:

http://www.usga.org/turf/articles/video/aerate_greens.html 

We schedule to begin aeration on Sundays around 1:00pm-4:00pm (1pm in spring & 4pm in summer) and hope to get all greens, tees, approaches completed by the end of day on Tuesday. We normally have some topdressing to finish on Wednesday morning. This is all weather dependent of course as we need full sun to complete the process. We are able to pull aerate while it is raining but unfortunately we are unable to perform any topdressing to fill the holes. For the topdressing process we need sun and lots of it. The sand must be completely dry before we can drag mat it back into the holes. If the sand is wet and we mat, we will basically cap the holes and have then compromised the whole process. We normally pull a core while aerating but sometimes we use small solid tines in between regular aeration and sometimes we do deep solid tine aeration. In the summer of 2012 we will be deep tining our greens rather than pulling a core. This decision is based on current conditions and will not happen regularly. With that said I am crossing my fingers that we get some nice sunny weather!