Looking Forward

Well, it looks like the weather has begun to drag itself out of Winter and we are starting to see more encouraging forecasts on the horizon. That was a pretty nasty stretch and believe me when I say here on the Grounds Maintenance Department it certainly had no fans. Thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding as we tired to protect our course as much as we could during that rather nasty period.

Anyway, enough looking back at what was, let me give you a little bit of information about what we have planned for the next couple of Months as we drag this course from it's Winter slumber and get it ready for this season.

We have quite a bit on the agenda so as I have done before I will list them out and let you know a little about what we have planned.


Aeration

This necessary evil is currently scheduled to take place on April 2nd (full course closure) and April 3rd (Back 9 closure, The Front 9 will be open for business). Due to the freezing weather our timetable here on Grounds has been condensed somewhat as we too haven't been able complete some of the tasks we would have liked. With that said you may have noticed that we have already made a sneaky start on Aeration and have cored our Tees. These are being over seeded and top dressed then brushed,with the forecast it is our hope to see them perk up again very soon.

As for the 2nd and 3rd of April here is a brief run down of our plans. You will be happy to know that our current plan for the Greens is relatively nonabrasive.

We will be performing a "deep-tine" these are solid spikes about 0.5 of an inch thick that penetrate up to 10 inches in to the green. Using this technique not only provides vents to help the plant exchange gases but also helps to relieve compaction and aid in drainage. As well as this there are some small select areas on some of the Greens we have chosen to pull cores but we feel these areas are so localized we don't think they will hinder your game.

We will be pulling cores on all of our approaches and fairways in the usual manner along with top dressing and brushing course wide.

Aeration is a huge undertaking with many Team Member putting in 1 or more 12 hour shifts to aid in it's completion. If the pros didn't drastically out weigh the cons from a turf health perspective you can rest assured we would not do it. It is our hope to be cleaned up and well on our way to recovery as soon as possible.

 Irrigation and H20 

Prior to Aeration we will be priming our Irrigation system and stock piling water in our pond network. Currently Dave Smith our Irrigation Technician is installing our Satellites around the course which we bring in over the Winter to keep them protected from the elements. These Satellites are dotted around the course in those silver metal boxes and they relay messages that our irrigation computer sends out to their corresponding areas. Once this is complete we will be turning on our pump station and filling the pipes course wide, this is a long process and there are always some unforeseen issues this being said the entire operation should be completed in a day or two after the initial start up of the pump station.

Also, you may have noticed we have removed some of the cat tails from the ponds on 15 and 17, these ponds are part of our irrigation network and the cat tail situation and gone unchecked for a few years making our holding capacity in these pond servery reduced. Over the next few weeks we will be damning up the outlets in our ponds (where possible) to stock pile water for what is expected to be another record breaking Summer. So please don't be alarmed of the water levels in some of the ponds look unusually high. As the season starts to heat up we will release that water in to our holding pond on 13/14 so that it can be pumped out on to the course via the irrigation system.

A Few Other Projects

I am aware I have prattled on for a little while now so I will briefly cover a few more projects we hope to be completed in the next couple of months.

• Tee Leveling - like we have on the Practice Facility we plan on stripping and leveling the following tee decks 1 White Tee, 8 Black Tee, 9 Forward and White Tee, 15 White Tee. For the most part tee markers will be moved to adjacent tees while these renovations happen.
• 11 Walking Path - We will be building a new walking path from the bottom of the hill by the pond all the way up the left of the hole to connect to the walk off area on the other end.
• 1 Green cart path - We will be renovating and moving the cart path adjacent to 1 green. The trees have made the cart path almost impassable and we feel enough is enough. The cart path will move several feet to the right through that area and we open to scrape through the gravel area on the left of the path and to grow grass there. This should make that area a lot more friendly to those way ward shots. 

Well, thank you for taking the time to read this update and I hope you have enjoyed getting a little more insight in to our lives down here on Grounds. As always we will see you out on the course and I will provide another blog in the coming weeks. 

So Close, Yet So Far

Here is an update about current course conditions at Olympic View.

Well the end should be in sight, after patiently waiting for the snow to thaw, which it has done on the majority of the front 9, the Grounds Maintenance Team are happy that all the playing surfaces have been cleared from debris and play can resume when it is time. Mother Nature unfortunately has had different ideas. With constant freezing over night temperatures and a very cold wind, the snow has given way to frozen ground conditions with the majority of the greens on the front 9 staying frozen all day.

This can be a difficult call to make as far as whether or not to open. Even though the wind is keeping the frost off the grass blades, the plant and ground it lives in are very much frozen. As the sun hits the green, it starts to thaw the top layer of soil, this can create a fragile environment for the root system of the plant. Foot traffic can cause movement in the upper thawed layer, shearing the roots from the frozen layer below.

Currently we are checking the greens every morning and afternoon to monitor daily thaw patterns. As it stands the day time temperatures are just not quite high enough to allow for a full thaw of frozen ground and the remaining snow across the front 9. Looking forward, there are some clouds and rain in the forecast which will hopefully give way to warmer day time highs and more importantly, warmer overnight temperatures.

Snow on 1 and 4 Greens still hanging on

1 and 9 Fairways still have some decent coverage

Moving focus to our chilly back 9. The snow still covers most areas and all but the green on hole 12 still has snow on them. Like on the Front 9 as the snow thaws is uncovers the debris left over from the wind storm last week.

12 Green and surrounds were littered

Hole 11 with thick ice covering the pond

Hole 12. Ever increasing snow moving back towards the tee.

Hole 13 still mostly covered from Tee to Green

Hole 14

Hole 15

Hole 17 Just the Tee and Green still have snow.

Hole 10

All photos showing snow coverage were taken on the morning of Tuesday 26th February.

Although we are seeing daily changes in the amount of snow on the back 9, partly due to the heavy winds, the thaw is still extremely gradual and it will still take some time to go completely. Hopefully we start to see some warmer temperatures soon as all of us here at Olympic View are ready for Spring to arrive and to welcome you all back for a great 2019 season.

Thank you for reading this update.

OV gets a taste of the Canadian Winter

I thought everyone may be starting to think about golf now that the snow has left the majority of the downtown area and the sides of the roads are looking clear. Here is a quick update from the Grounds Maintenance Department at Olympic View.

A couple of weeks ago it started to get pretty cold at Olympic View as the forecasted Arctic Air moved in over the region. This came in the form of freezing conditions followed by a light dusting of snow which had no problem settling on the already frozen ground.

Following that, a huge windstorm battered the course on Friday, February 8th and Saturday, February 9th. On the Sunday when the winds calmed down, myself and our 2nd Assistant, Sean Olsen, came in to a temperature of -10C to do a course check and survey any damages. The course was littered with small debris, branches and the light snow from the previous day had been blown in to snow drifts up to 2ft deep in places. For the most part and compared to other courses, we got away with any major damage and only a couple of smaller trees were felled as a result.

That evening there was a rather large snow event which continued on and off for the next few days as you may have noticed.

18 Fairway from the Clubhouse the morning after

Brett and myself ventured in that morning, while the rest of the city hunkered down for a snow day, to see what the situation was. Thanks to Glen Shillito for spending hours plowing the driveway and parking lot we could get access. When we arrived we were met with up to 18 inches of snow course wide and with the roads to the Grounds Maintenance Department being un-passable for vehicles without 4 wheel drive, the team drove to the Clubhouse over the next couple of days to help clear the parking lot and make walk ways and exits safe. From there we set about clearing a route along the cart paths from the Grounds Maintenance Department to the Clubhouse to allow our Team Members and equipment to go back and forth.

Cart path on 15, route cleared after 4 hours.

Over the next few days the team continued to remove snow from the Clubhouse and parking lot areas as well as moving around the course plowing the cart paths to allow for access to monitor the thaw.

The following are pictures as of the afternoon of Wednesday, February 20th, depicting current conditions and thaw progression.

The 1st fairway from the White Tee. One of our shadiest holes, the vast majority is still covered with up to 3 inches of thawing ice.




Hole 18 from the Club House fountain, snow on the higher areas are starting to recede but shady areas along the tree line are still thick. The Green still is covered with 2 inches.

13 Fairway is still covered from tee to green.

14 Fairway saw some of the deepest snow due to the wind swept drifts.

15 View to the Green. Pond is still covered with thick ice.

16 Very little signs of movement with 5 inches of snow still covering the tee.

The above pictures hopefully give you a good idea of the situation on our back 9 holes. Being tree lined for the most part, most of you will know that it always take a good amount longer to thaw than the holes on our front 9.

Below are a couple of photos showing the current situation on the front 9. Again these photos were taken the afternoon of Wednesday, February 20th.

View down 3 and across to 8 from 9 Tee

Hole 9 from cart path. View to Green

Thawing snow un-masking the debris situation from the wind storm

9 Green

As you can see the thaw on the front 9 has been drastically quicker than the back. This being said at time of writing, the only fully snow free green was on hole 5. Holes 1, 3, 4 and 9 still are covered with large amounts of snow.

Currently the Ground Maintenance Department have been out on course daily picking away at the task of debris clean up which is proving to be massive. As areas thaw, it is allowing our team jump to around blowing and raking the course to make it playable for when the snow does finally disappear.

The recent weather conditions and those that are forecast are far from being conducive for a quick thaw. Daytime temperatures on course are barely reaching 5-6C and overnight temperatures are dropping to freezing. Currently the early weekend has been forecasted with rain and we are hoping it will be enough to finish the thaw on the front 9, at least enough to allow play ASAP. The following week currently calls for more clear and cold conditions which will again slow the process down.

The Grounds Maintenance Team is working hard to tidy up after these storms and to get the course back in to shape for when Olympic View finally opens again. We hope to see you all out there soon and as always we are keeping the Golf Shop Team updated with current conditions.

Thank you for taking the time to read this update.

A Busy Winter

Hello everyone and a Happy New Year from the Grounds Team here at Olympic View. I am aware that you haven't heard from us in awhile and I wanted to right that wrong and let you know that in 2019 we plan to keep you more up to date with the goings on in the grounds department.

We shall keep you apprised of any up and coming projects, there should be some messages from Sydney the goose dog and maybe even a couple of videos to entertain and/or educate as the year goes on.

Firstly, I would like to make mention of the rope and stake situation on course. This Winter has been relativity pleasant golfing weather with warm temperatures and minimal delays in play. The last two months have seen plenty of rain and the course is saturated. This being said the course has been busy and the daily footfall has caused some extra wear and tear in high traffic areas. Currently all of our ropes and stakes are out on course to direct play around these areas, they are not intended to get in your way but to protect our course so that when Spring finally arrives we can have the course in tip top shape for your playing pleasure as soon as possible.

Please work with us in keeping these areas protected as we get through the final couple of months of Winter. We ask that if you need to move a stake to take a shot to please return it to it's original location and when walking around the greens to take the extra time to follow the traffic control. I would also like to say that having the amount of traffic control on course that we currently do brings us no pleasure here on grounds, a lot of work goes in to straightening, moving and cleaning these items daily and we hope as much as you do to the end of the Winter and the start of Spring so that we can begin to bring in these unsightly and inconvenient items.

Lastly a quick note on our cart path usage over Winter. As you will all know we are generally on cart paths only during the Winter months as the course has many wet areas that take time to dry. Usually even after a decent dry spell there are still many areas in the roughs that remain very wet for long periods of time. It is for this reason that even though a fairway may seem dry enough to use a cart on there may still be localized areas on both fairways and roughs that are still very wet.

During these months we are constantly checking these areas and we liaise with the Golf Shop daily on the decision to allow cart or carts carrying blue flags free reign on the course. As with the traffic control these measures are used solely to protect the course and to allow for a better experience come Spring.

Thank you for taking the time to read this first blog of 2019 and I will be posting another soon to let you know what we have in plan for the beginning of this year.