What do those guys get up to over Winter?

A question that we on grounds get asked at this time of year is "what do you do over Winter?" well apart from long mornings sitting in our lunch room drinking hot coco and putting the world to rights we actually manage to keep ourselves quite busy.

We find ourselves at the mercy of the weather as everyone does at this time of year with constant switches between heavy rain and frozen conditions we spend a lot of time with our eyes fixed on the forecast and guessing/hoping that our immediate plans won't be thwarted due to a sudden change in conditions. Although the needs of the course slow down they never stop.

Apart from normal setup we use the "off season" to complete projects, plan for the forth coming season and catch up on house keeping items around the Ground Maintenance Department which often get over looked during the speed and high demand of the busy Spring/Summer months.

Some tasks we have had success in completing and some near future task include:

16 Eco base

16 Bunker renovations - I wrote about this in more detail in a previous blog however to update you all, it went very well the Team completed it in 3 days, the drainage has been tested by mother nature and appears to work well. The next step will be to sand, I know a lot of you wondered why there is grass growing throughout the bunker. This is a tried and tested method of lining bunker bases that creates a natural Eco friendly barrier between the sand you play out of and the stones and undesirable materials beneath. Currently we are waiting until slightly warmer temperatures which will allow the sod to take root and knit together. At this point we will scalp the grass down to nothing and fill the bunker with sand.

Irrigation installs - We are in the process of moving some of our carry sprinkler heads to the cart path edges relocating them from the center of the carries. In doing this we hope to be able to provide better coverage to our carries utilizing all the water to the area in need rather than a turning head spending half of its time watering naturalized areas. This will provide for less misuse of water and a better standard of playing conditions in those areas moving forward.

Improved Irrigation at 10 Green walk on

Additionally we have been successful in installing perimeter irrigation around 10 greens walk on/off areas as well at extra irrigation at the walk on to 2 tee. All of these install areas will of course be seeded and grown in when the weather allows.

Improved Irrigation at 2 Tee walk on 

Tree work - During the last cold snap of 2017 we began removing some trees around the course, this was for two different reasons. Removal of hazardous dead/dying trees in several locations and increasing sunlight in areas that have over the years become increasingly shady and now only allow for poorer quality turf conditions. With our main focus this year being 15 greens we have also removed trees at 10 and 16. A lot of thought goes in to our tree removal process and only trees that have a direct impact on turf health or course infrastructure are ever removed while they are still healthy.

Corridor for sunlight right of 15 green

A picture of our new tee markers

Lastly we have also spent some time building all new tee markers. They have a new uniform sleek look and they will be installed along with newly designed flags shorty after our aeration process in early April. We hope you like them.

Moving forward our next major project will be a renovation of the triangle flower bed directly outside of the pro-shop at the bottom of the hill. We shall be reducing the size and changing the shape slightly, along with installing new concrete curbing around the edge. After this Jesse our gifted Horticulturalist, the man who brought you the magnificent flower bed at the Upper putting green and Wedding site, will be planting a spectacular display of flora that will greet you as you walk to the first tee.

Other areas on the concrete curb list in the short term will be along the cart path at 16 and the tee edge of 17. We hope that the install of concrete curbing in specific locations around the course will allow us to remove the tired wooden landscape ties as well as protecting grass in these high traffic areas where carts are constantly parked creating a cleaner and more attractive look.

Tired curbs around 17 tee

Tired curbs at 16

Finally, Glen Shilito along with help from grounds team members Jason and Conlan have began a two stage renovation of our on course washrooms. This renovation will be extensive and starting at the washrooms on 6. The plan will be to complete these and then in the Fall reno the washrooms on 13, however if the renovations on 6 are completed quicker than estimated we may endeavor to complete 13 also before Spring. The estimated completion time for each set will be 2-3 weeks. There will be a temporary porta-potty installed for your convenience at a slightly different location which will be near the cart path running behind the 6th tee.

As always we ask for your patience during any renovation or project work. Our end goal is to always improve Olympic View for your enjoyment and we always try to complete projects in a timely and professional manner to cause as little disturbance as possible to your experience. 

Christmas Snow Update

Hole 9 looking towards the green

On Tuesday the 19th of December we experienced a heavy snow fall. On course we had almost 6inchs of snow and with wide spread power outages in the West Shore area Olympic View closed it's doors for the day.

Since Tuesday we have experienced freezing temperatures that have allowed for little thaw. Last night (Thursday 21st) temperatures rose slightly and some rain did fall. This allowed for some thaw on hard surfaces around the clubhouse and on course cart paths but made very little difference to conditions on course with thick snow covering the vast majority of it.

Hole 8 from the Blacks

Hole 13 

It appears that we have been quite lucky as far as damage with only a couple of small trees being brought down by the weight of the initial snow fall.

The thaw and freeze cycle that we have been experiencing has led to treacherous conditions all over the course with large areas of sheet ice and slippery banking's. We would like to urge our members and guests to resist the urge to walk on to the course during this time. We are conducting daily course checks but for the most part we are not around to assist if an accident were to occur.

Hole 6

Looking forward, the weather forecast has changed over the last couple of days with slightly warmer that previously predicted conditions over the Christmas period. A mix of rain and snow will continue over the next few days and the amount of either will largely govern the re-opening of golf course. Although slightly warmer temperatures are now in the forecast, they are still only just reaching above freezing which means the complete thaw of the course will be a slow process.

As always we will be checking conditions daily and the Golf Shop will be open to take calls. I plan to prepare another update after Christmas day which I will post on our Blog page

From Brett, Myself, Sydney and the rest of the grounds crew we hope you all have a splendid festive few days and we hope to see you back on course in the not to distant future.

Merry Christmas and we hope you have a Happy New Year

Sydney enjoying the snow

Looking forward. Improvments and projects this Fall/Winter.

In the hope that a blog from myself will be half as read as a blog from Sydney. I thought I would take some time to keep all of you in the loop with what we are planning over the next few months.

While some of you will be starting to think about putting your clubs away for the darker months Brett, myself and the grounds team are excited and looking forward, as this is the time when we are starting to think about improvement projects and renovations.

In recent years we feel we have utilized this time well and have made some good changes to the infrastructure of the course along with a some sensible improvements that will stand the test of time.

 This year we have three main areas we are wanting to tackle and I will quickly go through each of them in turn.

Practice Facility Tee Decks

Camber on Tee Deck

This past spring we leveled the Academy tee deck, we considered this to be a big success. Years of divot repair and Top Dressing has put a substantial camber on all of the decks. The pros from our point of view were

• We used a lot of the striped sod on course to re-fresh high traffic areas and to sod the top of the 13 tee renovation
• The sand that we took away from the one deck was recycled and lasted us a good 2 months in Practice Facility divoting this year.
• Increased and more level surface area for players to practice on and a slower rotation of divider movement front to back.

Leveling completed

As you have probably noticed the tee decks are now complete and we are just awaiting the germination of our seed. Thank you for your patience during the renovations and putting up with the noise while you were practicing. 

Lot of sand to re-use

16 Green Collar Dam and Bunker

This one is a personal favourite of mine, our little yet perfectly formed 16th hole is one of my favourite holes, aesthetically speaking. The problem with it's size it that the problems seem to be magnified. A lot of you will know the we struggle to keep decent turf at the front of the green. There are many factors effecting this, all culminating in to one problem. Drainage, Sunlight and a Collar dam. We have fixed the drainage and we have removed several trees to the right to allow for better sunlight and air flow.

Problem Area

 Collar dams build up over time around the edge of greens, there are many reasons for this slow elevation of the greens surround and we have several greens with this issue. Removing these dams is time consuming and disruptive. The effect they have on the green can be quite severe, rain/irrigation water gets trapped behind the higher collar and just sits on the green. Over time the ground stays saturated and the turf begins to rot. Removing the dam is the only way to allow the excess water to run off the green and not pool. Other greens we would like to do this to are 1,8 and 11 and we hope to get to these also in the coming months.

                   Collar dam and sand build up

As well as the dams we plan to incorporate the renovation of the front bunker, years of sand built up is evident on the collar and this extremely high play bunker is most definitely showing the signs of how "popular" it is. As mentioned we will incorporate the two separate projects and do them both at once. The renovation of the bunker will allow for a re-design of the approach and the re- design of the approach will allow of the removal of the collar dam.

Tired bunker in need of face lift

Obviously during this time we will provide a temporary green short of the bunker area. We know this isn't ideal and we ask for your patience during this renovation which we will try to do, as always, quickly and efficiently in order to re-open the hole.

Soil and Seed

You may have noticed that we are utilising soil and seed in high traffic/bare areas around the course. We ask that you please stay outside the ropes that we have put up and help us to give the seed the best possible chance to grow. The reason behind doing this now is that we hope to get the grass established before the temperatures drop so that it is more able to withstand the drier conditions of the Summer when it rolls around.

Other smaller installations and projects include;

• Continued installation of upgraded isolation valves for the Irrigation system
• Improved drainage around 14 tee
• To fix the gate at the pump house
• Root pruning around some of our greens and rough areas
• To remove some of the dead or dying trees around the course

So as you can see we never stop here on grounds we are always trying our hardest to improve the course and make it better and better. I am sure by now you are all very bored of having me prattle on so here is a short video of Sydney chasing the Geese. 

Thanks and we will see you out there.

No fall greens aeration? The Superintendent must have gone mad!

Ahh, the season is beginning to wind down, trees are losing their leaves and it's the time of year where we pull out the aerators and start making a mess of the greens. For some reason though, this fall seems different? I don't hear any aerators or see any evidence of greens aeration, something must be wrong!?!

No, nothing is wrong, in fact, everything is right. We've been monitoring our profile in the greens over the past few years and have noticed we are in a very good state agronomically and felt we can push through the fall without pulling a core. 

In recent years we've made great strides in reducing our organic matter in our greens to below 2% via light and frequent topdressing. We've also found less intrusive ways of relieving compaction through pencil and deep tining aeration. One other significant change we've made of late is with our fertility programs. We've dramatically reduced our fertility inputs throughout the shoulder seasons, which I feel helps reduce organic matter production. 

With the goal of reducing or eliminating conventional core aeration, we will be continuing with these programs while monitoring our soil profiles throughout the year to ensure we can produce the best possible playing surfaces for you, our guests. So with that being said, come on out and enjoy smooth greens for the remainder of the year!

A message from Sydney the Goose Dog

Hello,

I know it has been a little while since my last message, but the geese haven't been around so I have been taking some time off to roll around in the long grass. It has been a little boring to be honest.

But I am sure you are all aware that "THEY" are back!! With this, I am back to full chasing mode and I will be out on the Front nine daily, travelling incognito and disguised as a golfer. I shall give chase directly from a golf cart in the hopes that the gooses think that all of you have dogs with you when you are golfing around the course.

I hope my progress will be visible and I will update you soon. I shall be on alert and doing my bestist.

How to Repair a Ball Mark

How to Repair a Ball Mark

One of the first things most of us were taught how to do in our recreational golf careers is how to fix a ball mark. But did we all learn how to fix one properly? 

While some of us have good intentions, we are not all repairing them properly.  A properly repaired ball mark takes days to recover, while an improper one can take weeks.  The golf ball striking the turf essentially causes the grass in the ball depression to die. Just "popping" the depression up can smooth out the putting surface, but it does not help repair the damage to the turf. It actually causes more damage by tearing the roots.

In the summer, Olympic View can see up to 250 rounds of golf in a day. That means up to 250 ball marks can be left on a green. If these go unfixed, or fixed improperly, our grounds team are left with a lot of ball marks to fix in the morning.  These can be time consuming when there are so many. On average a properly fixed ball mark can take 5-10 seconds. If our grounds team only fixed 30-40 ball marks per green, that can be up to 2 hours per day, 14 hours per week, or 728 hours per year of ball mark repair. If everyone can do their part, we will be left with more time to concentrate on other areas of the course.

A general golf etiquette rule of thumb is fix your ball mark and 2-3 other ball marks around it. Since you're reading this, it means you're a caring member or guest of our course. You're help with repairing ball marks would be greatly appreciated and in turn would benefit the health and playability of our course. 

Watch as our Golf Course Superintendent, Brett Finlayson, shows us how.

There are many different shapes and styles of ball marks out there. Whichever one you choose, if you follow Brett's steps, the outcome will be a perfectly fixed ball mark.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your rounds this summer at Olympic View Golf Club!

New 13 Tee Complex

By now I am sure everyone is aware that we have been working on upgrading our 13th Hole Tee Complex. First and foremost, Brett, myself, Sydney and the grounds crew, would like to thank you all for your patience during the upgrades and we are as aware as you are that the time frame for this has dragged on somewhat.

 The upgrades have taken shape with two results in mind. Firstly: level and expand the playing surface as well as improve irrigation coverage of the main tee deck. To give us and you more options for tee marker placement and a high quality playing surface. Secondly: design and install a completely new forward tee deck to allow for a more realistic and enjoyable challenge for players of the forward markers.

Frozen Ground

Mini-Ex couldn't break it

When ground was broken in January, the original plan was to have the tees ready for seeding the earliest the weather would allow (in time for March). The weather however had other ideas. As we all know, this winter has been a little nasty. The impact it had on this project cannot be understated. The  ground froze so hard that the Excavator couldn't break through.
The resulting chunks of frozen sand made it very hard to work with and almost impossible to level out. The freezing temperatures also had a huge effect on our equipment. Batteries running flat and hydraulics ceasing were common place for days on end.

After the initial frozen blast came, the seemingly endless snow dumps made work almost impossible. We managed to continue and get the irrigation trenches dug and then of course came the rain, making gluing of pipe and fittings for the install extremely difficult.

We understand that during all of this our members and guests have been faced with an eyesore when you approached the area and have been asked to play off an inadequate smaller tee or a temporary mat which dramatically shortened the hole, both of which has had an impact on the enjoyability of your round. It is because of this we have decided to sod the main teeing areas and leave the seeding to the banks, This course of action will allow opening of the tees in a much earlier time frame. I can now happily say that there is now light at the end of the tunnel.

Laser leveling of the back tee

Final Grading before laser levelling

Most of you have no doubt noticed that the project has come on in leaps and bounds recently. We have firstly completed our main objectives for both tees. The back tee area has been increased from 1300sqft to 2800sqft with hugely improved irrigation coverage of not only the teeing space but the entire carry from tee to fairway. The forward tee has turned a daunting 487 yard hole from the Yellows to a manageable but still challenging 413 yard hole.

Building up new soil on forward tee wall

Necessary protection during heavy rain fall

Now the sodding on the white tee deck is complete, we hope to have the forward tee deck completed by weeks end. On the white deck, the banking and walk on/offs will be seeded with areas around the back and the left hand side of the tee being left to naturalize. If the weather stays warm with the sunshine and showers we are currently experiencing, we hope to see germination begin in a couple more weeks.

Back tee deck ready flat raking and sod

Forward tee deck ready for sod

We hope to have you all teeing from the new decks as soon as possible. We will be putting up traffic control to help direct you around the seeded and recovering areas. Please try to follow our guidance in this matter by taking the time to follow fences and signage. With your help and consideration, the grow in, recovery and final completion of the project WILL be expedited and we can all once again enjoy the Tranquility and Nature of one of Victoria's best Par 5s.