Bring it May

I could say it has been another busy week here at the Parkway but, really it has been two weeks since my last Blog.  Ladies had their opening lunch and Senior men had their opening day for the season last week.  Two radio days have been held in the last two weeks. 

Quickly let’s take a minute to reflect back to last year’s disaster of a spring.  We had maybe five playable days last April and May was not much better.  There were trees lying all over the golf course.  Muddy mounds of dirt where the fairway bunkers were needed to be leveled and seeded.  Bunkers needed to be built.  Nine fairway need to be restored from the pond work.  My point is the golf course is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was last year at this time.  Where I am behind is in my shop.   With the early spring in March where usually I would be just wrapping up my equipment maintenance.  I was really just getting into it.  With the early spring there was no choice but to get out and cut grass.  This past week the rest of the union staff returned and over the next couple of weeks we will get caught up.        

The weather has been very cold and windy.   Several frosty mornings means that the turf's growth has slowed.  Plus on top of that we have been very dry so we have been getting really good cuts on the Greens, Tees and Fairways.  Good cuts with firm dry conditions plus very little growth means that the greens are very fast for this time of year.     The weather this week shows some showers on Monday and then Wednesday and Thursday warm temperatures.  Late this week the grass is going to explode, the rough will start to get thick and lush.  The greens will not be as firm and fast, or the fairways for that matter.

This past Saturday turned out to be a great day to burn the brush pile at the back of the range.  Which is good because the range is about to open, and we would lose too many balls in the brush.  The brush was very dry and it burned a lot quicker than I had imagined. 

Freeing up my afternoon to do some much needed grading of the cart paths.  We borrowed this fancy dancy grader and proved a great tool for the job. 

The other sets of tee blocks were put out last week.   These tee blocks were made last season to replace the standard plastic ball that was being used.  What I found really disappointing is that the day after we put them on the course 5 of them went missing and then another 5 were gone by the end of the week.  That is when we made the decision to pull them back off the course, just leaving the ones on the 1^st and 10^th tees.  I really hope we will be able to leave them out this year. 

As always if you have any questions feel free to email me kendalllindsay@hotmail.com

Cheers Kendall

Drainage

This past week has been another busy one here at St. Clair Parkway.  We had some very cool days early in the week.  All the grass slowed its growth due to the heavy frosts we have been getting.  This gave us the opportunity to finish up some drainage that had been put on the back burner for a while.  We were fortunate enough to borrow a trencher from a neighbouring golf course.

The first area that we tackled was the low spot in front of number seven green.  The drainage that runs through there has been damaged and needless to say does not work anymore.  Whenever it rains it will stay wet here for several days if not weeks.  Another issue is the pond beside the green was made to over flow out to that drainage and with the wet spring last year there was not enough time to get everything tied in.  Hopefully with some pictures this will all make sense.  The first picture is of seven when the drainage has been completed.

The low spot that runs across the fairway is where the old drainage ran.  We re-installed drainage in through the low spot and tied it in on the other side.  There is a catch basin on both sides of the fairway and a slit drain between the two.  Plus we put a catch basin at the top of the hill to catch the overflow from the pond and brought a drain down the hill and tied it in as well.  Here are some more pictures of the work.

  This was awesome to be able to get this little project done, at a time when the course was not so busy and dry enough that it was possible. 

Plus a little bonus was finishing off the drainage for the bunker on the 15th that was built last year.

 

The course dried out this week.  This spring has been very dry, they were calling for big rain this weekend but have basically reduced it to hit and miss.  The irrigation system was charge on April 5th.  When we did our initial start up, one of the two pumps had a bearing give way.  We then proceeded to charge the system with the other pump to make sure all the lines wintered well.  Once the system was up and some dry areas were watered, we shut everything down to pull the pump and replace its bearing.  Of course with the irrigation system down the weather man changed the forecast dramatically.  The course dried out and the greens were certainly firm and fast, which I think most of you liked.  Friday afternoon the pump was re-installed and the irrigation lines charged again.  The course certainly got a little dry for my liking but it will bounce back nicely now that the system is running again.  Maybe we will hit one of the thunder showers they are calling for on Sunday.

Till next time Cheers

Kendall

A little bit of this and a lot of that!

It has been a very busy couple of weeks here at the Parkway Golf Course.  Cutting grass,clean up of trees and stumps, grading paths, spaded in more trees, gates down, signs up and it goes on and on. 

Last week we had two successful days of tree moving.  We moved in another dozen trees to help with the tree lines on the front nine.  These trees are strategically being placed where the bunkers use to be. 

This makes the tree project that much closer to completion. 

Another tree was lost out back between 13 and 15 fairways.  It had been struck by lightning years ago.  Finally with the wind the other night it lost a branch high up in the canopy.  The tree was rotten from the base of the trunk way up above my reach.

  Suprisingly it is not my agenda to cut down all the trees, but I have to maintain the trees on the property to be safe for all patrons.

Yesterday proved to be a great day to install our intake on the pump house in number three pond. 

We get the help from a very kind neighbour that has help me out on more than one occasion with his Backhoe.

Finally I got to welcome back two very key employees this week, Ruth and Don.  I only get them for three days a week so every second they are here is so very valuable.  With there presence lots and lots of grass was mowed this week and the place actually looks like a golf course again..

Until next time

Cheers Kendall