Cart Path Rules at the Parkway

With records rains all over the province last week and one inch in the rain gauge this morning.  I believe now is as good a time as any to talk about the cart path rules here at St. Clair Parkway Golf Course.  One of the first decisions made by the turf department every morning is the cart rules for the day.  When making this decision, a lot of things have to be considered.  How wet is it?  What is the forecast for the rest of the day?  How busy is the tee sheet?  Are there proper staffing in place to enforce the cart rules of the day?  Is there staffing to clean the carts at the end of the day?  Will the Golfers even obey the rules?  All these questions come into mind when making the decision.  You have to understand that the goal here is to make the right decision for the golf course, not the golfer.   Here are the carts rules that we have.

 

Normal Golf Cart Rules: 

Drive the cart responsibly

Avoid sharp turns, even with the smoother tires the turf can be torn

Use cart paths whenever possible

Obey cart exit signs.  When you come to the cart exit signs follow the arrows and exit to the cart path.  Stay on the cart path to the next hole.

Fairways Only Cart Rule:

Carts are allowed to go from the cart path to the fairway at a 90 degree angle.  Once in the fairway they are allowed to stay until they get to the cart exit signs. 

No Carts in the rough

No Carts in the tree lines

Cart Paths Only Rule:

Carts are to stay on the path at all times.

              Stay on paths when approaching a puddle, slow down and drive through the puddle slowly.

 No Cart Rule:

This one seems simple right!  Well it has come to my attention that some of you feel carts should be allowed to go all of the time because we have cart paths.  Here are the reasons we do not allow carts to go out some days. 

Cart paths are washed out

Cart paths are still flooded

Water over the bridge on #6

The puddles on the paths are too deep for the carts to pass

The potential damage to the carts and the course, make the labour involved in repairing the cart or the damage to the course not worth it.  

Handicap Cart Rules

Allowed to by-pass the cart exit signs, and access the green from the back.  Parking on the Inter-rough cut of grass no closer.

Cart path only rule, they are not allowed to leave the path

Fairways only rule, they are not allowed to by-pass the cart exit signs

Handicap rule only applies when the conditions are for Normal Cart traffic

#7 Golfer decided to cross the wettest fairway we have.

#16 Golfers decided to drive in the tree line to look for there ball.  The cart path is right there.

Golfers decided to drive into a saturated area in the rough on #18.  You would think after the first golfer went in there the second golfer would know better.

 

Well, no more winter updates!  Now we are into spring, I know you have probably heard this one already “what a difference a year makes.”  Last spring at this time the golf season was in full swing.  We opened on the 11^th of March and never really looked back weather wise.  This year we managed to get open in March but for the second last day and just for walkers.  One thing I will say is that there were quite a few dedicated golfers out there yesterday getting in their first round of the year.  I will promise you this, the weather will get better – let’s just hope your golf games do too! 

The last month has been filled with varying tasks to get the course ready to be open.  The first thing that needed to be crossed off the list of tasks was bridge repair.  All four bridges that cross Baby Creek needed some attention in one way or another.  Number 10 bridge needed the most work.  The plywood floor had to be torn up, as well a couple of the support boards underneath.  The exit ramp of the bridge was totally replaced as well. 

Support board that has seen better days

Replaced support board

Ruth replacing the exit ramp with new boards

Bridge nearing completion

 The bridge on the 7^th hole has always been of concern.  It just seems to be in an awkward position on the hill.  The railings were too low so they were removed and raised.  As well as the matting and a couple floor supports were torn up and replaced.   

  The other two bridges just needed minor repairs.  All the bridges will receive new coats of paint and stain when some reinforcements arrive in the summer months. (Students)

Another task to get off the list was to clean up the aeration cores off of the fairways.  We rented a tractor mounted blower and spent two very cold days getting the fairways ready for their first cut which will probably happen late next week.

Also all the benches were brought into the shop for repair and paint.  So if you find your favorite resting place is missing rest assured they will be all back out shortly.

We have been watching the weather very closely trying to decide when the first cut on the greens will happen.  It was very tempting to cut them on Thursday, but after the frost lifted we got out there and realized that the greens were actually still frozen.  So we retreated to try another day.  Now we are hoping to cut them Saturday afternoon, because Sunday is starting to look like a beauty day.  

In my younger days I was known to catch a fish or two with my Grandfather up on the Bruce Peninsula.  I’m usually not one to tell tall tales of catching fish but, I am very proud to say that there is a fish catcher in my family.  Not a fisherman, but a fish catcher.  You heard right… Lexi caught a fish!  Unfortunately I missed it all and there are no pictures, but the story goes like this:  Ruth and Don were repairing the bridge on 7.  Lexi was trolling the creek close by.  Ruth heard some splashing about, looked over and saw Lexi with her head completely under the water.  Couple of seconds later she came up with a fish!  (agoonie goo goo!) She dragged it up out of the creek quite proud of herself and at the same time a bit confused about what to do with it.  Ruth and Don placed the fish back into the creek and now we all have a tale to tell about Lexi the fish catcher!  Of course I will carry on the tradition that every time I tell the story my hands will get a little further apart about how big it was. 

Lexi trolling

 

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

 

          Cheers Kendall

 

Winter Update

The course is wintering well.  We had a relatively mild lead up to Christmas.  Boxing day we received well over a foot of snow that seemed to stick around for the better part of two weeks.  When it did melt it was a sloppy slushy mess.  All the turf looks good so far except for some snow mobile damage.  There is some disease on the low lying areas of the fairways.  These areas were not treated with chemical.  The greens and tees were treated and they look good so far.  With the cold temps that are on their way it would be nice to have a nice 6 inches of snow as a cover.  But, we have to take what mother nature gives us.  There is no ice on the greens which is a relief.  Plus everything looks good so far.  Here some snap shots of the course with a little snow on it.



 

 

 

Cheers Kendall

Oh Sandy!

Sandy brought two days of high winds and continuous rain to the area.  For the most part there is just scattered debris from the trees.  In a few areas there are some larger branches but for the most part it seems we came through the storm with minimal damage. The golf course is just really saturated. 

Currently two out of the four bridges on the course are not passable.  When the water does subside we will have to go out and inspect the bridges to see if they are still safe to pass.  We have water up over them before, but not for three days straight.  As you all know water has a way of finding its way through things you don’t want it to get threw.

With the amount of water that is on the golf course, it will take a long time to dry, especially with the projected weather forecast.    

For those die hard golfers out there I am afraid you are looking at the end of the golf season 2012. 

It is that time of year!

Well fall is upon us folks.  September has been a blur and here we are on the eve of the Bring your best tournament. 

All efforts have been focused on the golf course and getting it ready for the tournament.  As you all know most of the efforts have been put into the greens.  How do we go about speeding them up? This is the first year that I have lowered the height for bring your best.  This was in an attempt to get the greens faster than they have ever been.  The greens were cut thursday morning at their regular height and then we lowered the height and cut them again in the afternoon.  Friday morning they were double cut in the morning and then cut again in the afternoon.  Saturday morning as long as there is not a frost they will be double cut again.  Normally there would be a roller in the mix but unfortunately it broke down last week and could not be repaired in time. That is seven cuts in three days.   As for the magic number the goal is to get them as close to 12 feet on the stimp metre as possible.  Late in the afternoon on friday we got a light shower, and then another one during the night.  This unfortunately gave the greens a little dampness that slowed them down.  The good or bad news is by the look of the forecast the greens will be quicker for Men’s closing day.

Greens mower reel

 The picture above is a reel and you can see how they need to be absoutely perfect to produce good greens.  The staff has done an extremely fantastic job this past month.  My hat goes off to them for their efforts.  

Next Tuesday and Wednesday the greens will be aerated.    The next blog will certainly cover the topic of aeration.

Cheers Kendall Lindsay

Summers end!

These two grinders are what keep our reels sharp all season  long.  They were purchased by the golf course at the beginning of this year.  Before the reels were done on a much older grinder.  We are now cutting grass below a 1/8^th of an inch, so the reels have to be perfect.  These grinders are a crucial tool in keeping the greens at their best.

Reel Grinder



Bedknife Grinder



With the end of the summer and the start of another school year the student staff will be missed here in the maintenance department, as well in the other departments of the golf course. 

Our student staff was remarkable this year, we hired 7 students to help us through the season and 6 were outstanding.  One was lost to another job.  One student returned for a week to help us out before he started school.     

We wish these fine young men a great and safe school year: Nick, Mark, Luke, Brandon, and Cameron.

Corey and Tyson will be sticking around to help out as they go to school locally.

So if you have done the math correctly this means we have 5 cutters including my self left to take care of the property.  Wish us luck it will be a long September!

 Cheers!

Kendall

Club Championship and More!

 

A lot has happened since my last update.  Several different tournaments have been held at the golf course along with all the Club Championships.    

The turf has been recovering nicely from the heat stress of the summer.  There was times this summer where it seemed like it would never end.   It was just day after day of continuous heat and it wasn’t just the days it was the nights as well. The greens came through the heat really well. I was very happy and proud of their performance under that much stress.  We never raised the height of cut during the stressful times, we just backed off on the double cuts and even let them rest for a day here and there.  Last season we purchased a walk mower to cut the putting green and #14 green as well.   It did wonders for those two greens.  This year whenever a green was starting to show stress it was added to the walk mow route.  This seemed to do the trick, so from mid June until mid August many different greens were cut with the walker. 

By far the tees took the heat the worse.  The weakness of the tees was evident early in the summer and unfortunately some grass was lost on them.  The irrigation system is poorly designed for the tees.  Basically the pipes dead end on the tees instead of being looped, along with this they stopped one sprinkler head short on every tee.  This means that the ends of the tees are not getting the proper coverage and the reds and blue tees were susceptible to the heat.  With the cooler weather approaching we took advantage of the fore casted rains that were coming and we aerated all the tees except the white ones.  We left these because they still needed to be played for men’s club championship.  As the senior men and ladies club championship were finishing, the crew went out right behind and began aerating the tees.  The process was Aerate, verticut the cores, the cut cores were pushed around to fill the holes with loose dirt, blow them off real quick and then they were seeded with bent grass. 

Aerated



Verti Cut



This was very good timing indeed.  After the aeration of the tees the rains came.  From Thursday Aug 9^th till Tuesday Aug 14^th a little over 5” of rain fell on the golf course. That is 23 744 258 litres on the entire property.  The grass has absolutely exploded, with this growth the mowers are working harder and more and more issues are appearing with the ageing fleet.  Some days it seems we are in the shop more than on the course. 

After the heavy rains a tree was up rooted below the clubhouse near the cart exit on #18.  Only half the tree fell down but the other half would have been too dangerous to leave.

It is very disappointing to me when it was such a stressful year for the turf to survive, but we still have members that continue to disobey the cart rules.   

This Tuesday the 21^st we will be verti cutting the greens followed by a top dress of sand and then brushing it in.  The greens will be fertilized and watered the following day.  This process helps to control the thatch on the greens which helps with the firmness of the greens and ball roll.  The greens have not been verti cut since June 4^th.   The last time that the greens were top dressed was July 25^th after we vented them.  The greens will be verti cut one last time for the season in the third week of September to help prepare them for the Bring your Best Tournament.    

Thanks For Reading
Cheers Kendall