16 Hours Till Opening

Wooosh!

Whooosh - the sound of the fastest tarp removal crew in the world?  I think our crew is great, but the fastest in the world is a big moniker.   Wooosh is actually the sound made by the tarp when a giant wind gust blew in while removing the tarp form #11 green.

The following two video clips are time lapse photos taken every five seconds and strung together to make two quick video clips.   They were taken on our practice green yesterday and the 11^th green today.

If you watch the video clips closely, you can see us remove the nails securing the tarp.  We then flip the tarp to clean off any remaining sand or debris.  We fold the tarp, roll it up, and then do the same to all the bubble wrap under the tarp.  The sensors and air ducting are then removed.  We sweep the green for debris and nails.  Then we follow the tarp removal with a mow.

When we got to the 11^th green the wind was gusting and the crew was questioning if we should remove the tarp.   I decided we could handle the challenge.  As we started to flip the tarp to clean it, you can see it took off on us.  Luckily the crew reacted quickly and we held it down.  The next time we are debating the removal of the tarp in the wind, I am going to listen to the crew!

Will try to learn how to make vidoe clips bigger.

A Different Twist on KP

We came up with a twist on the standard closest to the hole competition.  The crew was excited and happy with the results on the turf after we removed the tarp from #13 green - a notoriously troublesome green.  Green was in such good shape, we gave it a mow at a very high height of cut (H.O.C.) - .25”.  We did not want to remove too much leaf blade at one time. 

In the video the green looks a little off color near the cup.  It is a little distorted from the camera phone and the area is not growing as fast as it was the last portion of the green to clear of snow and is very shaded.

One final note – Andrew, intern from Olds College, did end up winning the competition.  In celebration he made a bold move at the end of the video by stuffing a snowball down the Assistant Superintendents jacket.  We have been joking with Andrew that it could be a long summer for him!

Good to be out on the turf.

A Few More Photo's

A few photos I forgot to post.  They were taken while inspecting the turf under the tarps on April 27.

Second Assistant - Scott Elliott and Old's College Intern - Andrew Smith Inspect the 12th Green

Scott and Andrew take closely inspect the turf under the tarp on #8

Another Tool for The Tool Box

The following video is some footage I shot on Sunday April 24^th while checking on our tarps as well as some footage from yesterday when we mowed the 13^th green for the first time.

The crew and I have been monitoring the temperatures, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, as well as watching moisture and checking disease pressure under the tarps.  This will be a daily occurrence until the tarps have been removed.   It has been a long winter and it would be a shame to regress over the final few weeks.

The 13^th green in the video clip is the first green that we applied black sand to encourage melting.  We purchased the black sand through one of our local distributors who obtain the sand through Grass Roots Agronomics in Idaho.  As of two weeks ago we have applied the sand to all 19 greens.  To date 16 of these greens are now 90% clear of snow.  We have also completed some side-by-side trials using black organic fertilizer and black sand.  I will try to get some pictures of those plots on the blog in the next few days.

1 10 13

I was just leaving the golf course for Easter dinner with friends and these three numbers went through my head. 

1 - We are down to one foot of snow at the shop which is the first time since November 2010.  It is nice to see the last red number on the snow pole.  There is still plenty of snow on the upper portions of the course but I am encouraged to see the numbers dropping.

Last Red Number - below 1' at the shop



A little melting to happen - 29" of Snow Still on #3 Green

10 - The first double digit high temperature of the year  -- we hit 10 degrees at 1:30 PM today.  The last double digit high temperature was on November 6^th when we reached a high of 10.6.  That is 168 days between double digit highs.

We Are Not the Enemy

A couple of days ago I attended a talk put on by the Canadian Cancer Society and Wildsight.  Their guest speaker was Paul Tukey, the head of Safe Lawns, an environmental organization out of the United States.   A screening of the film “A Chemical Reaction” which is produced by Paul was shown.  This film is about the by-law banning pesticides in Hudson, Quebec and the ensuing court case.   After the screening, Paul took questions about growing organic lawns and banning pesticides in Canada and the United States.

Wildsight Meeting

The imagery and message in the film make a compelling case to ban all pesticides.  Many of his points regarding organic gardening are worth pursuing for home owners.   The challenge for all of us is to remove ourselves from the emotional arguments and imagery that surround the issues of pesticides.  When the emotional issues are removed and sound scientific methods and facts are used, better decisions and debates are a result.  The use of science as a decision making tool should be applied to both sides of the pesticide debate. 

During the question and answer session Paul also stated that golf courses “are not the enemy.”  I thank Paul for that statement.  Often golf courses are used as examples of intensive pesticide usage.  One of the biggest challenges I have as a golf course Superintendent is the image that we are constantly spraying the golf course with pesticides.  At Greywolf, the majority of the time our sprayer is used, it is applying liquid foliar fertilizers to key areas on the golf course.  We use these foliar products because we can apply them directly to the turf.  There is no run-off of these products into the water shed and therefore less potential for environmental damage.  We applied these foliar fertilizers directly to the turf in the area we want to treat.  They are applied when weather conditions are appropriate further reducing the chances of run-off.   Another advantage is that these liquid fertilizers are less reliant on soil temperatures making them more useful to the turfgrass.    At Greywolf we often do not achieve soil temperatures that make traditional granular fertilizers available until June.  But most people associate a sprayer with pesticide usage and, thus golf courses often have an image of intensive pesticide usage.