Fall Update

It’s that time of year again when the leaves are turning colors, falling rapidly off the trees and the course looks beautiful. It is also that time when we start to prepare the golf course for the long winter season.

Leaf cleanup is in full swing and has become a daily battle. Our pull behind leaf blower and two large rough mowers have been and will be used everyday until the end of the season. When the wind isn’t howling, it is pretty easy to clean the greens, tees and fairways off, but the bunkers can be a bit more challenging. It takes a couple of staff members to fully blow the leaves out of the bunkers and then complete the raking process. The difficult part of that this season is that our staff size is quite low and blowing the leaves out of the bunkers blows a lot of sand out of the bunker and into the grass. As well, if we do not follow the bunker crew around with a rough mower, the leaves tend to blow right back into the bunkers. This is definitely a difficult task and we will continue to do our best to keep the bunkers clean and playable.

With a little wind, most of the course looks like this each morning. The staff is busy blowing and mulching up the leaves everyday.

Many bunkers trap leaves along the edges and can be difficult to keep clean on a daily basis. It is important that we blow the leaves out of the bunker before we rake them so we do not mix the leaves underneath the sand.  

Many trees have lost their leaves and many have only just begun to drop. Our large rough mowers will continue to run as much as possible to mulch up the leaves.

As for the turf, the growing season is coming to an end soon. We have had one morning of 30 degrees and frost and another morning of 28 degrees. The process for the turf to go dormant for the winter has begun. To keep the turf as healthy as possible for going into winter, we have begun to raise the mowing heights and reduce the frequency of mowing. With less sunlight and cooler soil temperatures the turf is not growing very much. In a few weeks we will spray all greens, tee boxes and fairways with a snow mold preventative fungicide to protect the grass in the winter months. 

Come out and enjoy the course as this is the most gorgeous time of the year!