Reason #58 Why I DESPISE Crows...

The crows can be quite a nuisance on the course.  Whether they're swiping your sandwich, hot dog or other snack while you leave your bag to hit your shot or squawking for hours on end while they chase one of our eagles around the course or empty out an entire garbage can at a tee, they are downright annoying.  Well, here's another reason I hate the darned crows...

bunker liner being destroyed by crows

Yup, the pesky crows have been pulling out our bunker liners from the fairway bunkers on #1 one little piece at a time.  They are using these stolen pieces of bunker liner for their nests.  I know some will think that they are brilliant for doing so, but it still doesn't change my opinion of these vandals and thieves.  They leave us quite a mess to cleanup each and every morning as they leave liner pieces scattered all around and within the bunkers.

Anyway, now that I've vented about the darned things, we do have a plan to hopefully stop them from continuing to destroy the liners.  We will be removing the liner from the edges about 4' back into the bunker.  It seems as though this is where they are focusing on removing (stealing) it from, likely because it is quite shallow around the edges.  Bunkers typically have 2" of sand around the edges and 4" in the bellies or flats of the bunker.  Being that those are the only 2 bunkers on the course with liners so we don't anticipate it taking too long to complete this task.  They were installed to help prevent stones in the subsurface from migrating up into the bunker sand.  Hopefully this will not become a problem around the edges when we remove the liner, but it makes sense to do so before the crows complete it for us anyway.

Oh yeah, Reason #44 Why I DESPISE Crows:

no respect

Yup, they swiped my sunflower seeds from my cart yesterday......but I fought back and wasn't going to let them take off with them!

The dreaded hydraulic oil leak...

There are very few things Superintendents fear more than hydraulic oil leaks; especially the ones that occur on a green.  Well, that being said...

hydraulic oil leak on #2 green

The good news is that the staff member operating that mower immediately detected the leak and promptly drove the mower off the green and into the rough which prevented any more oil from spewing onto the green.  Any turf that came into contact with the oil will die and must be sod cut out and replaced with new turf.  Sod must be cut from the edge of the green and placed where the contaminated turf was removed.  Next, more sod is cut from a turf nursery, the old tee deck on #18 in this case, and placed at the edge of the green where the other sod was removed.  This restoration was quickly looked after and the green was open and back in play by 10am the same morning.

contaminated turf removed

new sod from green edge placed, leveled and sanded

This repair will require some TLC over the next few weeks, but will slowly fade away and become undetectable.

Two very important and valuable lessons learned from this unfortunate occurrence:

1. Our operating budget still falls short of affording us enough labour to eliminate the potential of a hydraulic oil leak on our greens by walkmowing only.
2. We really need to make establishing a proper turf nursery a top priority to avoid having to "steal" turf from other in-play areas of the course (ie - #18 tee and/or chipping green).

Welcome to the team Tara!

Tara Mansholt - Horticulturist

You may have noticed a new face around the club this week.  Please join me welcoming Tara to our team as our new Horticulturist!  Tara comes to us from Blue Devil Golf Club in Calgary.  She is eager to make an impact here at QGolf Club as she will be an integral part of our course beautification effort.  Tara will also be maintaining the Horticulture Blog, where she will be regularly updating you on what she's up to, as well as offering helpful tips for the maintenance and care of your own home gardens.  

Special thanks to Turf Care team member, Sharon, for putting in lots of extra time and effort to help maintain the landscaped areas as we searched for a new Horticulturist for the past couple months. Without your efforts, Tara's first few weeks here would be quite overwhelming!

Once again, please welcome Tara and feel free to ask her any questions or offer any comments you may have regarding the landscaping around the club!

STOP IT!!!

Cart damage on #2, where carts are supposed to be on PATHS ONLY!

Bug spray damage on #3 fairway...APPLY BUG SPRAY ON PATHS!

Please stop damaging YOUR golf course and prevent others from doing so!

Cutworms & Grubs

We are quite pleased with the current condition of our greens.  They are still recovering very well from the anthracnose.  Other pests have been causing us some grief this year too.  Insect populations have skyrocketed this season past our thresholds to levels that are resulting in turf injury.  The most significant damage thus far has been on the back right of #5 green and the right side of #8 green.  Many tees are also suffering from insect damage.

The particular insects we are currently dealing with are cutworms and beetle grubs.  Cutworms are the larvae, or caterpillar stage, of more than 200 species of moths.  They typically live in the thatch of our turf and emerge at night to feed on the shoots (leaves) of the grass plants and then burrow back down below the surface during the day.  The damage from their feeding often resembles that of a ball mark.  The insecticide applications we have made must be watered in to reach the cutworms.  We have made a couple of control applications and are achieving great results from them.  

cutworm

typical cutworm damage

Grubs are the larvae stage of beetles.  Grub damage can be much more severe than that of cutworms.  They feed solely on the root systems of turf resulting in the death of the grass plants.  Damage also occurs from birds digging up turf searching for grubs to feed upon.  Controlling grubs can be fairly difficult and is often quite expensive.  We have applied our control products and like with the cutworms, we are achieving great results.

white grub

typical grub damage

Cutworms and grubs do not discriminate on what turf they invade.  We have found them throughout the greens, tees, fairways and rough.  We will continue to restore the damaged areas with additional soil, seed and fertilizer to promote recovery.  We will also continue to monitor our pest levels and apply control products as necessary.

Golfer Etiquette Towards Staff

Every year I find myself responding to questions and complaints from golfers about how they feel our staff is “always in their way”.  Most of these questions and complaints come from those who typically play in the morning.  This is simply because in order to complete our work efficiently and effectively, our staff typically works between the hours of 5:30am and 2:30pm.  That’s not to say you’ll never see us out there after 2:30pm, but more often than not the majority of the staff completes their day by then.  Our morning maintenance tasks are geared towards setting up the course for play and scheduled to be completed ahead of the first tee time and we usually maintain at least a 5 hole gap between us and the first group of golfers.  

There are some uncontrollable factors that sometimes hinder our ability to stay well ahead, such as the City of Richmond noise bylaw.  Monday thru Saturday the noise bylaw is 7am.  On Sundays and holidays, the noise bylaw is 9am.  This means we cannot start any maintenance on areas of the course surrounded by housing prior to these times.  This makes completing the morning maintenance tasks particularly difficult on weekends when the first scheduled tee time is 7am.  Unfortunately, this even prohibits us from mowing and rolling the putting greens prior to the first tee time.  This is why if you tee off early, you will often find the greens on the course to be quicker and smoother than the putting greens you just practiced on.  This is not an issue for those who tee off later in the morning.  Other factors, such as mechanical issues or inclement weather, also sometimes prevent us from keeping well ahead of golfers.

Once the morning tasks are completed, most of our staff is then assigned mowing duties that must be completed during play.  If at all possible, we do try to work in any gaps there may be to avoid disrupting play and to complete the work more efficiently.  Our course is very busy though so most of the time there aren’t any gaps for us to work in.  In this case, we typically work backwards on each nine to avoid disrupting the same group throughout their entire round.  Rest assured, our staff is not out there trying to annoy you, they just want to get their work completed in a timely manner and they are instructed to be courteous.  This sometimes means you may feel like they are “always in your way”.

It is NEVER okay to assume that you may hit your shot towards any staff member.  They may not be aware of your presence right away, but it usually doesn't take long for them to realize you're there.  They are also operating loud equipment and are often wearing earplugs, so they are not likely to hear you yell fore.  Please afford them the time to safely get out of the way before hitting your ball.  I was struck by a golf ball several years ago and it took 8 staples to close the wound.  Needless to say, it was not a pleasant experience and I’m now very protective of my staff.

Please watch this USGA video that illustrates how to proceed when you encounter a working staff member: