Course Update

This week the golf course is enjoying a much needed break from the dog days of summer. The cooler weather gives our maintenance team the opportunity to undertake a few different cultural activities including: verticutting and topdressing greens, aerating and fertilizing disease/dry spots on fairways and tees, as well as overseeding what remains of the weak areas.

Willow Tree on the 1st hole.

Baby birds, nesting in the willow trunk

Over the last month we have had quite a bit to deal with. At the end of June we had a damaging windstorm which downed many large tree limbs on the course, as well as completely knocking over the old willow on the right side of the 1^st green. We had to bring in an arborist to remove the fallen tree while we dealt with the damage to the rest of the course. Upon removing the trunk of the willow the arborist discovered a number of surviving bird nests. We decided to wait until the birds are old enough to fly away from the nest before continuing with the rest of the removal.

We are still having problems with irrigation water quality; debris in the water clogs the filters in the sprinkler heads, causing them to underperform. The result is dry areas that become weak and susceptible to disease. Currently many of these areas are infected with a disease called anthracnose. 

The good news is that bentgrass is very resistant to this disease; the bad news, poa annua is not. Most of our fairways are poa, and fairways are a very large area. To do a blanket application of fungicide to completely control the disease is in the neighborhood of $12,000. Obviously this is not in the realm of budget, so to do spot applications we are looking between $2000-3,000; however, thankfully, the cool weather reduces the severity of the disease, giving us the opportunity to try and bring these areas back to health with fertilizer. Healthy turf resists disease, so if we can get these areas healthy without the use of fungicides, we can save a lot of money. Last week we purchased $150 of an agricultural grade of Urea fertilizer. We melted this down and added it to water to be sprayed directly on these areas. The benefit of this is that it supplies instant nitrogen to the turf. Hopefully we will see these areas recovering this week, but if we continue to see the anthracnose spreading, we will have to consider purchasing fungicide for spot applications.  

Anthracnose, 1st fairway.

     

Clogged sprinkler head, dry spot, 4th tee

As I mentioned, the underlying issue here is the effluent water. If our sprinkler heads were working properly the turf would be healthy and we wouldn’t have a disease issue. Last week Sam and I spent about 30 hours combined unclogging sprinkler heads, only to have ones we fixed at the beginning of the week clogged again. Very frustrating. I am looking into the costs of different filters and screens we can put right on our effluent mainline. So far the cheapest option is a “basket strainer” which is a cost of $3000, plus installation. 

 

Clogged sprinkler head in action. Dry spot surrounding.

I have talked to the City about the quality of the water, and they have basically told me there are a number of different reasons there could be debris in the water. There is a new farm on the effluent line and the other farms are have been using a lot of water through the heat, as have we. The constant pumping of effluent causes debris and sediment in the system to become agitated into the water and then into our system. Hopefully once the farms begin cutting their hay and stop watering, the demand on the system will be reduced and the water quality will return to normal. In my opinion, the water quality is the biggest issue currently facing our golf course. We do not have the staff to manually clean out each head every week, and Sam and I simply cannot be consumed by doing it ourselves.

 

The 12th Green, June 2015

Despite all these issues, the golf course is still in quite good shape, especially considering we just went through about 20 consecutive days above 30 degrees, many of those days in the high 30’s. We have had many compliments from members and the public lately, which has helped us keep a positive outlook as we head into the rest of the season.

Man V. Mother Nature

Kamloops has finally received the weather we have been waiting for. While our greens have been outstanding so far this year, some areas on our fairways have struggled to recover with the cool, dry weather. Mother nature is a tough opponent and sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we simply cannot get things growing without her cooperation. 

Photosynthesis is the primary process used by plants and to convert light energy, normally from the Sun, into chemical energy that can later be used to fuel the organisms' activities. 

The equation for photosynthesis

Although photosythisis is the key to plant growth, temperature directly affects the rates at which this process will occur. 

How Temperature affects photosynthesis

Grass in our climate grows when the ambient air temperatures are roughly between 10 and 25 degrees Celsius. Grass seed will germinate (sprout) when soil temperatures exceed 21 degrees Celsius. Without these temperatures, photosynthesis will not be efficient enough to promote growth; grass simply will not grow at the rate needed to fill in damaged areas.

Over the last week or so, the course has begun to rapidly heal from the damages of winter. The temperatures that we have been getting are right in the growth wheelhouse for grass. In fact, there is so much growth that we are now having trouble keeping up just with mowing, let alone trying to cultivate, seed, fertilize and repair damaged areas. It often feels like a juggling act with either too many balls or not enough hands, or both. Take someone away from mowing to repair an area and we drop the ball for keeping up on mowing. On the other hand (pun intended) we try to keep up on mowing and course services like filling sand and seed stations, cleaning washrooms and we miss an opportunity to repair an area and drop that ball so to speak.

I have also heard a few of the same questions from a number of members, some have some truth behind them, while others are just rumors. Here are a few questions about the course that I have heard from members lately and how I have responded to them:

Did we lose turf on the fairways because we didn't have water early in the spring?
No, we lost turf on the fairways because of ice formation over the winter, this suffocates the turf, causing it to die. We had a limited amount of water early in the spring, and were irrigating these areas.

But these areas looked fine early in the spring.
Yes that is true. The decay of dead plant material will take some time to show. Living areas green up, while the dead areas decay and turn brown and white. Imagine putting a turkey in the freezer all winter, it'll look pretty good when you take it out, but leave it on the counter for a few weeks, stomp on it, drive on it, and things wont be quite so pretty anymore.

What are we doing to prevent winter damage next year?
We have been aerating, verticutting, overseeding with bentgrass, basically trying to replace as much of the damaged poa annua areas with bentgrass. We will also be using a higher percentage potassium fertilizer this fall to promote better winter hardiness. The higher bentgrass population we can maintain in these chronic damage areas, the better we will be able to winter in future seasons.We will be hitting these areas with cultural practices again in the fall.

How long until these areas are back to normal?
Many of these areas are already fully healed. Most of the 5th fairway and a good portion of the 1st, 11th and 16th fairways all suffered a great deal of winter ice damage. Today, you can hardly see most of these areas, while some of the worst areas are still filling in. Once we get into June, these areas will virtually be fully recovered and back to "normal."

Ice Damage, 2nd fairway, April 21 (Top), May21 (bottom)

Ice Damage, 3rd fairway, April 2 (Top), May20 (bottom)

Ice Damage, 5th fairway, May 1 (Top), May25 (bottom)

I think some people might be forgetting how much damage was done this winter, and just how far things have come in the last month. Sure a few areas are still filling in, but I think it is a testament to our Turf Care team who has been able to bring these areas back despite being short staffed and battling mother nature.

Without mother natures cooperation with warmer overnight temperatures and some precipitation, our efforts may go unnoticed for some time. It takes a great deal of patience to do what we do, and sometimes a little patience, and maybe a little rain dance, can go a long way; I think that is evident in how the course looks and plays today. Things have certainly come along way since we opened on February 27th this year. We are in store for another great season.

Men's Night May 20th 2015

Turf Grass Health: Winter Kill

We have had a few comments lately about the course being very very dry. I wish I had been able to sit down and address this issue earlier, but until now we have been busy just trying to keep the course from getting too dry.

We have been waiting to be hooked up to the city effluent water, as we do every spring. This spring we had an exceptionally early snow melt, allowing us to open the course early (Woohoo!). Usually we do not need to begin irrigating the course until early April, but the early melt this year required irrigation to start by mid March. We have been bugging the people from the City who are involved with getting the effluent going and they were trying their best to get us water earlier than usual, but as I understand, chlorine was back ordered and delayed the process about two weeks.

We are able to pump a small amount of water from the river into our irrigation pond, (thanks to our Links Director, Robin Johnson) but until we are hooked up to effluent water, our system cannot run to its full potential and we cannot irrigate overnight. We can manually irrigate during the day, using a hand held radio (walkie talkie) to communicate with our central irrigation system, but this becomes difficult as more and more people are on the course golfing. We irrigate in the priority of greens, tees, dry fairway areas, fairways, and then everything else. 

A few people were concerned that we were losing turf on fairways and tees but I can assure you, these areas were already damaged, they were damaged before the snow even melted. We are not able to see this damage until the turf around these areas begins to grow and green up, leaving areas of brown and white turf very visible. These areas are known as "Winter Kill" and can are caused by a number of different factors:

1. Ice damage - Thaw and freeze cycles during the winter cause ice to accumulate in low lying areas, especially on fairways.The ice suffocates the turf, causing a build up of toxic gases like carbon dioxide. You can see the result of this in many low-lying areas on the fairways.

   

   Low area, ice damage (anoxia)

2. Crown Hydration - This occurs when water, either from snow melt or rain, accumulates and rapidly freezes. The plant is essentially tricked by the water available and begins breaking dormancy. As the plant takes in water and if the temperature rapidly drops, the freezing process causes the water to expand as it forms ice and breaks the plants cell walls, much like a frozen glass bottle full of water. Some of the damage you see in low lying areas may also be caused by crown hydration.

   

   Ice formation beneath snow cover

3. Dessication - This is just a fancy word for removal of water. Dessication takes place when the turf is exposed to the elements for long periods of time. Snow cover is blown off of an area and over time, the wind and sun cause the evaporation of moisture stored in the plant. After a certain amount of time the plant becomes too dry and dies. You can see this type of damage on some of the high mounded areas of the fairways or on elevated tees.

High and Dry - Dessication area

The good news is that the type of grass we have on our fairways is mainly "poa annua" which is actually an annual plant. Much like the annual flowers in your garden, poa is supposed to die each winter. To ensure its survival poa produces millions of seeds in the fall to re-seed itself in the spring, and then has another episode of mass seed production in the late spring to ensure its survival after the heat of summer.

Areas like this will fill back in quite nicely with warmer weather and fertilzer

Now that we have effluent water (hooked up on April 10th, yay!) we are able to supply enough water to these areas that require some extra maintenance. Once we get some warmer weather, the poa seeds from last fall will begin to germinate and fill in the damage. We have already aerated these areas to allow for better penetration of water, air and nutrients into the soil. We have applied an initial application of fertilizer and will be continuing with more to help these areas fill in faster. We also try and overseed some of the chronic areas with bentgrass, which has a better tolerance for ice, to help prevent future damage.

Aerated fairway areas, allows water and and fertilizer to reach soil easier

Although the course was very dry, the damage you see is from winter kill, not from being too dry. With our maintenance practices and some warmer weather I can assure you that with in a month these areas will hardly be noticeable. We usually see some damage in the spring, this year, although it was a milder winter, we still had quite a few freeze-thaw cycles causing a bit more damage than we have seen in the last few years. If you ever have any questions about the course, please feel free to stop by my office or track me down on the golf course, I always enjoy a good conversation about turf! If you would like to read more about winter damage in Canada, please click this link: Winter Kill

-Travis

Trees and Turf

Lately I've been reading more and more twitter comments and blog entries from Superintendents about cutting down trees on the golf course. They've been to referred to as giant weeds and basically a nuisance to any turf manager and golf course.

Shade issues causing damage to turf

Tree's compete for nutrients with the turf; they cover turf with shade, limiting photosynthesis and reducing turf health, as well as reducing air flow and creating a higher probability of turf disease. Trees make a mess in the fall, shedding leaves and debris everywhere, increasing labour costs. They can even block beautiful vistas and views! Yikes. While these are all true and valid reasons to remove a tree on a golf course, I can't help but think things are trending in the wrong direction.  Some people, golfers, superintendents and even architects may be forgetting how important trees can be to the integrity of a golf course.

Aerial View of Kamloops Golf Club

At Kamloops Golf and Country Club, our course is defined by its fairways lined by mature and beautiful trees. If we adopted the thinking that tree's are weeds, it would severely alter our course's playability and architecture. Sure there are a few trees I would like to see get into an accident with a chainsaw, that would definitely make my life easier. And what kind of Superintendent doesn't like to fire up the chainsaw and go cut some wood, "OUH-OUH-OOUH" (Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor Grunt), it's pretty much the most
"manly" thing one can do. But I think there are other solutions out there, ones that don't involve full tree removal

Arbourist removing standing dead tree

We have worked with the Board of Directors to get an annual Tree Maintenance budget, which I would love to see doubled, but of course... we just can't fit it all in. Each winter we work with an Arbourist to remove hazardous limbs and some trees that have basically
died. We also try to save some of that budget to reduce the tree canopies in areas that may be causing an issue with the turf. This type of arbourculture, known as "crown thinning," and will help light and air pass through the tree canopy to reach the turf; a compromise in the relationship between the turf and the trees.

A few years ago one of the the local courses here in the Kamloops area was ravaged by pine beetle and was forced to remove 1000's of trees. After the tree's were gone and the native grasses filled in, I think the course was changed for the better. A course a few hours up the road has removed some overgrown trees that blocked beautiful views of the adjacent river and mountains. In both these situations removing trees improved the course.

The 10th Fairway, mature trees

Some courses have installed large fans to increase air flow in heavily treed areas. However, these can be expensive to purchase and maintain. Many places with smaller budgets must remove trees. Each situation is different and I'm not suggesting to stop all tree removal, but to just think about the purpose of the tree and it's role on the golf course before deciding to cut it down. Maybe there are other options, maybe there are not and the tree has to go. The relationship between turf and trees is a difficult one, but the relationship between trees and the golf course is also important, lets try not to forget that.

To Lease, Or Not To Lease, That Is The Question

Adequate maintenance equipment is a vital part to the success of any golf course. There are a number of different options that clubs can look at when dealing with equipment dealers.

• Option 1 - Buy - This option has a high upfront purchase cost, low short term maintenance costs, and higher long term maintenance costs (as the equipment ages), but no monthly payments. 
• Option 2 - Lease - This option has low upfront costs, low short term maintenance costs, and no long term maintenance costs (as the equipment is returned and new equipment re-leased), but is a fixed on-going yearly cost.
• Option 3 - Lease to Own - This option has low upfront costs with monthly payments and a buyout at the end of the term, low short term maintenance costs, and higher long term maintenance costs as the equipment will eventually be owned. 

So which option is right for our club? Well that really depends on each piece of equipment and what it is used for. Each option has advantages and disadvantages for different situations.We also have to look at the cash flow and financial abilities of the club in the long and short term.

• Owning - This option is good for equipment that will last a long time with relatively minor repairs. Equipment like utility vehicles, topdressers, blowers, reel and bedknife grinding equipment, and lighter duty mowing equipment. Many clubs do not have the financial abilities to purchase most of this equipment upfront, but some have the long term stability to deal with repair and maintenance cost. For these types of equipment the best choice is often a Lease to Own option. 

• Leasing - This options is good for equipment that takes a beating on daily basis such as rough mowers. Equipment that will quickly deteriorate due to heavy and hard use is not something you want to hang onto for years and years. By leasing this type of equipment you avoid the high repair and maintenance costs and cycle through new equipment you can count on. Equipment that undergoes regular technology advancements such as greens mowers and chemical sprayers are also a good to lease. Leasing these types of equipment you can be sure to get the latest and greatest technologies to bring your turf to the next level.

Quinton working on a reel

At the Kamloops Golf and Country Club we have a good fleet of maintenance equipment and one of the best people in the industry to take care of them, Mechanic and Turf Technician, Quinton Haresemchuk. The members at our Club have enjoyed his expertise and service for 25 years, 17 of which he as been a Mechanic.

Last year our Club re-structured some of our equipment leases, returning our walk behind greens mowers (which we no longer had the staffing numbers to operate) for a riding Tri-flex greens mower.

This year one of our main leases was up, leaving some choice for the future of our equipment fleet. We decided  to lease a new sprayer and rough mower, while re-leasing our 2 fairway mowers and 2 smaller light duty mowers. This move saves the Club almost $45,000 from 2014 to 2015, while keeping some of our equipment that is in good shape, and getting in some much needed new equipment.

Triflex greens mower                                  New Sprayer                                      New Rough Mower

Next year, two of our "Lease to Own" lease's will be finished and we will own most of our utility vehicles, attachments, grinding equipment, and lighter duty mowing equipment. This will bring our yearly lease payments down by almost $55,000 from 2015 to 2016. This is a total reduction of almost $100,000 over 2 years, significantly reducing our overhead costs while ensuring we our getting the most out of our equipment fleet. Having the proper tools for the job is an important part of anyone's success, especially that of a maintenance facility and Turf Care Team.

People Are Your Most Important Asset

Ask any Superintendent, "What is the golf course's most important asset?" They probably won't say equipment or fertilizer, or even the irrigation system. The best Superintendents will tell you that their staff are their important asset. Without staff, good staff, happy staff; who will operate the equipment? Who will apply the fertilizer? Who will repair and maintain the irrigation system? The answer is simple: NO ONE. Your people are your most important asset.

The 3rd Green looking back down the fairway. Fall morning

There are many different ways to manage a group of people. We find that a team atmosphere can be very effective. Working together with trust and respect is a fundamental component of management and success. This becomes even more crucial when staff numbers are below where they should be, and each team member is asked to do more than they previously had to do. Some people manage with fear and demand respect. We use positive reinforcement and earn respect mutually. Some people choose to cut staff hours and staff perks as it is a high cost that is variable and easily reduced. While this can save money in the very short term, it won't take long before staff becomes displeased and productivity plunges along with morale. We try our best to be fair with our staff and focus more on rewards than discipline. When your job is to create and maintain a 128 acre pristine product, your dollar definitely goes much much further with happy staff. I think as a team, we have certainly been able to achieve a sense of trust and respect that has seen the conditions of the course flourish.

2014 Kamloops Golf and Country Club Turf Care Team

If the golf course is the most important asset to a Golf Club, and the people who maintain the course are the golf course's most important asset, you must treat these people with the fairness and respect they deserve. Otherwise your Club will not last long in this day and age.

Thompson-Shuswap Bronze Medallist Recipient

The staff at our club have done an absolutely astounding job this year. I really can't thank them enough. Seriously guys and gals, if you read this, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Labour budgets over the last 3 years have been cut and cut and then cut some more, and all the while our staff has been asked to work harder and to do more with less. They have done more than that. They have done far more than just maintain the course to an acceptable level. Our Turf Care Team has went above and beyond this year... and our efforts have been noticed. The course was voted "Best Course in Kamloops" in the 2014 Kamloops This Week Readers Choice Awards. The course has also been recognized as being outstanding by the PGA of BC, receiving a 2014 Regional Bronze Medal as one of BC's Top Tracks, while it is also the first time in the Club's 100 year history to make it into these rankings. An award winning Turf Care Team. AWARD WINNING!  Well done everyone!

13th Green looking back down the fairway. Fall morning

These awards have been echoed by our membership and greens fee'rs who have praised the course conditions all year. We hear positive comments on the course at least once a day, something that we are not used to in our line of work. While the compliments are much welcomed and reassuring of our success, we will continue to strive to become better. Although we have done very well this year, there is always room to improve. We will continue to raise our standards and goals as we prepare and plan for next year.

Where did everybody go?

September is here! Where did summer go? It seemed like we were just gearing up for the BC Women's Amateur Championship and now most of our staff is gone back to school. The last few months have certainly flown by, we had the Sunshine Open and are currently getting ready for the Club Championships this weekend. We completed an aeration of our greens in the last week of August, giving them a chance to breath after a hot dry summer. We were able to over come many challenges this year, while some are still an on going battle.

Blower turbine helping to contain duck weed

 One challenge we were faced with this year was Duck Weed in our ponds. Duck weed, (lemna minor) is an aquatic plant that can double itself overnight. Over the course of a few days, a small problem can turn into a large one. In past years we have sprayed them with an aquatic herbicide successfully. However, this year with the hot weather and a late herbicide application, the duck weed went out of control!

Manually removing duck weed

The only option left was to manually remove it from the ponds. This is a very labour intensive task. The first step was figuring out a way to contain the duck weed in one area of the pond to make removal more effective. We tried pool noodles, floatation systems, and finally had success with our blower/turbine. Blowing the duckweed to one side of the pond made it possible to remove with rakes and skimmers. Leaving on the shore to dry is an effective way to kill duckweed as it needs water to survive. We followed this with another aquatic herbicide application to kill off any remaining duck weed. Finally, it was gone!

Greens Aeration, 1/4 inch tines, 2.5" spacing

We successfully completed one of our 2 planned fall greens aeration. August 25th we did the front 9 and completed the back 9 on August 26th. With limited staff, doing 9 holes a day makes things more feasible. There are many different pieces of equipment involved in this process and it is certainty a lot of work. We don't aerate because it's fun, and we don't do it just to mess up your golf game, we do it because it's the best thing you can possible do for your greens. For more information please click this link: USGA: Why do we aerate when the greens are perfect?

Anthracnose on the 7th fairway (yellow and brown areas)

We have been battling an Anthracnose outbreak on our fairways and in our rough all through the end of summer and into September. Anthracnose is a foliar disease on annual bluegrass where symptoms include elongated stems, chlorotic (yellow) leaf spots with small, black, spore-bearing structures (acervuli) in the center. It is caipble of causing wide spread damage when conditions in late summer are favorable. To fight this disease there are a number of fungicides registered for control. We have chosen a more envirnmentally friendly approach, applying fertilizer with high nitrogen to bring the plants through until fall when they can over come the disease naturally.  

Antrhacnose symptoms up close

 As we transition into our fall season we will struggle to keep up with daily mowing and course services such as cleaning the washrooms and filling the sand and seed containers. Our staff has gone from a peak season of 7 full time staff and 5 part time staff to 4 full time staff and 2 part time staff. Many golf courses face this challenge in September as seasonal jobs are usually filled with university or high school students. Please have some patience and keep in mind that we are trying to get as much done as possible.

"Best Golf Course in Kamloops"

We have some exciting news at the Kamloops Golf and Country Club. In case you haven't heard, we have been voted "Kamloops Best Golf Course" by the Kamloops This Week Reader's Choice Awards. This is a very humbling award to receive. Our Turf Care team has worked tirelessly this season and it seems as though the rest of Kamloops has appreciated our efforts.












Thank you to everyone who voted for our course and to our staff who have worked so hard this season. We had a great year this year, and we will certainly try to keep things "best in kamloops" right into winter.

2014 BC Women's Amateur Championship

Well folks, it has been a while since the last blog entry but I hope you can excuse us; we have been very busy having just recently hosted the 2014 BC Women's Amateur Championship! Preparation for this tournament began early this spring when the course opened. From planning our greens aeration's, topdressing, fertility programs and repairing the winter damaged areas, we aimed everything to have the course in the best shape as possible for this prestigious event.

From large scale repairs of fairway areas and bunker renovations, to small details including staining benches and string trimming, there is no one who could say we didn't have the course dialed in. Green's fertility was lean and mean, while the fairways were lush but firm. We received many compliments about the course from the competitors and members alike. The BCGA officials who last saw the course in late April could not believe the transformation that had taken place, going from a winter damaged course to a lush and vibrant one.

Our Turf Care Team worked extremely hard, so hard in fact I actually had to go out and tell them to slow down! They worked on their days off and did split shifts to make sure we got everything done on a daily basis without disturbing the competitors. Even Sam the dog was spotted mulching sticks at high speeds (pictured below). While it is a lot of work to bring the course to its full potential, it is both fun and rewarding to see everything so shined up and pristine. We had the greens running at over 11 feet on the stimp meter for the final round, by far the fastest and smoothest we have ever had them.

Morning shots, setting up for the Big Tournament

Some people may ask, "Why can't we have the course in this shape everyday?" Believe me, no one wants the course to be in perfect shape every day more than your Superintendent, it's our job! However, this just isn't possible to sustain on a daily basis. With financial limitations such as labour, and physical barriers such as trying to work during play, not to mention the detriment some of these practices can have on turf health, it's just not possible to do everything everyday. Things like rolling the greens, raking the bunkers and

The 1st Hole looking backwards

even cutting all the fairways are just not feasible when you have a limited crew of workers. We start early (5AM) to try and get as much work done as possible before golf starts (6:30AM), then work backwards around  the course to avoid seeing the same group of golfers twice. Many of these hi-intensity practices such as rolling and mowing at at low heights of cut are also very stressful to the turf itself. Continued practices like this can be done everyday, but as a result, we would have to manage our greens more intensely, costing more in fertilizer, fungicide and labour.

When hosting a major event it takes months of planning and intense labour to bring conditions to their peak. A tournament of this caliber showcases our course to the rest of the province and is a great source of marketing. A caddy of one of the competitor's told a member of the Club that this is the best conditioned course they have seen so far this year. Compliments like this can go a long way in boosting our Team's moral when they have worked so hard to prepair the course and is certainly something we strive to hear.

Final Hole of the Championship

The tournament went very well with no major issues all week... except for one irrigation head that stuck on the night before the final round on the 13th fairway! This caused some minor standing water, but we were out with squigee's moving the water away as much as we could. Our practice facilities have never seen so much use. These girls practice hard! To our surprise some began arriving daily at 5:30AM to begin practicing, then stayed after their round until dark. Dedication, to say the least. 

2014 BC Women's Amateur Championship - Turf Care Team

Once the event was over and we finished handwatering all the greens and replacing all of our course accessories, we were finally able to relax. After all is said and done it's all just another feather in our cap but will certainly be the benchmark that we will aim to bring the course conditions too again in the future. Thanks to all our Club's Staff and Volunteers who worked so hard for this event, it was a great success!