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| 15th Hole |
I have been at Dinosaur Trail for a little
over a month now and have become very acquainted with a substance called
Bentonite Clay. Bentonite is formed by the weathering of volcanic ash in water,
but I have also been told it was the finest of the fines of the ocean floor in
prehistoric times. There have been numerous dinosaur fossils found on the golf
course, and if you look close enough at the rocks on the property you can see
fossils throughout the back nine. Half of the golf course is constructed upon
this medium and has caused numerous issues right from day one.
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| Hills of Bentonite, the back 9 is constructed completely on this medium |
Many of the bunkers in the back nine have
been filled in, due to the Bentonite completely contaminating the sand.
Irrigation piping and wiring has been compromised over the past 15 years, to
the point that I am bringing in Dan Funk
of Aqua Lawn to troubleshoot the system and determine if the automated control
can be regained. Many stations on the back nine do not work from the satellites
so they require manual valve operation, something that must be corrected as
soon as possible. Finally, the back nine is a continuous asphalted cart path,
and it has seen better days. The constant shifting and drainage patterns have destroyed
many of the cart paths to the point they are unsafe for staff and golfers. I am
currently looking at a few different options to repair the worst areas for the
time being and plan to start redoing sections every year. My first option is
going to be trying a recycled rubber cart path, installed by a company called
enviro-paving.They offer a 5 year warranty on their product after it has been installed, which is great for us. I have done some research on the product and found out you can
apply for grants through the Alberta Government, if you are a non profit
organization and offset the cost of the install. The official name of the grant is the Municipal Demonstration Grant Program and is only offered if the tire crumb used in the product is recycled in Alberta. They offer funding up to $25,000 a year, so it is definitely something I am going to pursue for our course
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| 14th cart path that needs to be replaced |
One neat thing about the back I have
learned is that after a heavy rain the Bentonite acts kind of like water bed
and allows for undulations to alter slightly on greens during that time.
Right now we are currently 95% snow free
and will be starting to clean up the course this week to shoot to have the
front nine open by Easter weekend. I have seen the odd bit of snow mold out on
the front nine greens and have treated it with granular fungicide, but I am in
no rush to coax the greens out of dormancy. At this time of year, spring snow
storms are always a threat and the last thing I want to do right now is stress
the plant out or provide the conditions for snow mold to thrive. I plan to
remove the permeable tarps from the back nine greens sometime next week, and
start my foliar greens program the first week in April as long as the weather
stays consistent.
As well we are working hard to remove some
large Northwest Poplars as well as limbing up others to improve playability, as
well agronomic conditions. Many of the trees on the front nine
have past their life expectancy and it is time to develop a long term tree plan
to deal with these potentially hazardous trees.
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| Removing the large Poplar on the right |
Good luck to everyone this spring working
towards getting their respected courses open for play, or already are open for play. Hopefully everyone can make their way out here this season for a round of golf in the badlands and maybe even a beverage or two.
