What are those white dots on some of the greens?

If you've played golf here during the last couple weeks, you may have noticed some white paint dots along the perimeter of the lower putting green, #6 green and #15 green.  These paint dots are there to indicate where our turf health program "check plots" are located.

check plot on the outer edge of the lower putting green

The check plots are approximately 3ft x 2ft and will be covered with plywood during each and every application of fertilizer (foliar and granular), plant growth regulator, wetting agent and other plant health products throughout the entire 2014 season.

We've talked about creating these check plots here at Quilchena in prior years and decided to go ahead and do so after reading USGA Northeast Region Director David A. Oatis' article titled "Sayin' It's So Doesn't Make It So".

Through the use of these check plots, we will be able to accurately evaluate just how effective our turf health programs actually are.  We will be routinely evaluating colour, growth rate, canopy density, root density and depth, infiltration rates and disease incidence among others.  We will also be using check plots on some select tees and fairways to monitor and evaluate their turf health programs too.

We are excited to continually observe the check plots throughout the season and look forward to sharing the results with you!

Future Supers - Aaron Swail & Landen Huculak

We are very fortunate to have two aspiring Superintendents on our Turf Care team here at Quilchena, Aaron Swail and Landen Huculak.

Aaron joined our team in the spring of 2011 in an Assistant-in-Training role, or AIT, shortly after graduating from University of Guelph's 2-year Turf Management program.  Stepping into this role afforded Aaron the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of our operation, right from pushing a rotary mower to being a meaningful voice and opinion of many key decision-making conversations and meetings.  Aaron was able to gain some valuable experience as AIT and has since moved into an Irrigation Technician position.  Along with the many added responsibilities of being our Irrigation Technician, Aaron still plays a big role in our turf health programs as one of our "go-to guys" for spraying and fertilizer applications.

Aaron Swail

Aaron continues to increase his turf maintenance knowledge by spending time each and every day asking as many questions as he can, providing feedback and bringing forth suggestions; something we've encouraged him to do from his first day on the job here.  We are proud to be a part of Aaron's career development and look forward to continuing to help groom him along the way to becoming a Superintendent!

Landen joined our team in the spring of 2008 and has been an extremely valuable part of our operation ever since.  Landen brings a very strong work ethic and positive attitude to our team and has excelled at every role he has been in here at Quilchena.  His knowledge of the game, determination, willingness to continue to learn and desire to move up the ranks motivated him to enroll in the 2-year Turf Management Program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and he set to graduate in the spring of 2014.

Landen Huculak

Oh yeah, Landen is pretty much a scratch golfer too so don’t get suckered into playing him for cash!  We are extremely proud to be able to assist Landen with achieving his goals along his career path and greatly look forward to having him continually work alongside us.  Please join us in congratulating Landen on his upcoming graduation!

Like I said, we are very lucky to have these two aspiring Superintendents on our team and we look forward to following their continued success in the Turf Management industry!