Agronomy Department and Course Weekly Update

November 25, 2015

And just like that… It is Thanksgiving week; the holiday season and cold weather have arrived.  Did you know the course has had 12.5” of rain during the month of November?! As always, we have our eyes on the forecast in preparation for cover pulling; it is right around the corner. Once we see that the covers will be needed, the team will stage them near the greens.

Your Maintenance Team has been busy adding sand in the greenside bunkers, I am sure you have noticed the playability and aesthetics have been better in the completed bunkers (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 16 and 17). We just finished one of the greenside bunkers on #3 and should complete the remainder during the first week of December. Once all of the greensides have been completed, we will then attack the fairway bunkers. We will choose them on a combination of the most played and worst shape. If you see your Maintenance Team working in the bunkers, be sure to give them a “high five” for all their effort. These bunkers are 26 years old and it takes a lot of hard work to repair fabric, cut down faces and add sand into the bunkers.

Since it is that time of year, I wanted to say “Thank You” to the members at St Ives Country Club for allowing me to serve you each and every day. It is truly a blessing to be your Golf Course Superintendent. I am starting my 7^th year in this position and the club has gone through a lot of positive changes. I am thankful I have been a part of the process, which has allowed me to learn and grow along the way. Our Team works hard each day to get better and we are always self evaluating, so we can serve you better. We are looking forward to finishing the year and preparing for next years golfing season.  

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at kmacdonald@valleycrest.com and for more information follow us on Twitter @stivescc_vcsup and the Blog: http://vcgmstivescountryclub.blogspot.com/

Happy Thanksgiving,

Kyle Macdonald, GCS, Class A 

Agronomy Department and Course Weekly Update

November 19, 2015

Even though it feels like we just finished with the summer season, covers are right around the corner. We are going to stay with the guidelines we have used the last 2 seasons for when to pull covers over the greens, as I do daily, I will monitor the forecast and communicate with the membership when these times arise. The forecast for this winter is an, El Nino, which is expected to bring a wet and slightly warmer winter. Hopefully, that will translate into more rounds and fewer cover pull but as always it will be a treat to see what curve balls Mother Nature will throw at us. If you would like up to the minute information, please follow the Blog and Twitter ( @stivescc_vcsup ) !

Forecast for pulling covers:

1)      25 degrees or cooler for two consecutive nights

2)      Soil temps less than 40 degrees

3)      Daytime High less than 50 degrees

As always when dealing with Mother Nature there will need to be some flexibility. We understand the greens are our most valuable asset and will make all our decisions based protecting our asset.

The greens are being prepped for winter, this includes; raising the HOC (height of cut), increasing fertilizer/fungicide applications and preparing covers. The green speed will decrease during the fall months; we do this to ensure suitable speeds for the winter months. We plan on going into winter 1-1.5 ft slower on the stimpmeter than our target speed, once the greens go dormant the speed picks up considerably and there is no way to slow them down.

I also wanted to remind the membership to repair all ball marks on the greens, we will be dormant soon and that means the greens will not recover from unrepaired ball marks. Therefore, any unrepaired ball mark will be seen until next summer L…

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at kmacdonald@valleycrest.com and for more information follow us on Twitter @stivescc_vcsup and the Blog: http://vcgmstivescountryclub.blogspot.com/

See y’all on the course,

Kyle Macdonald, GCS, Class A