Golf Fernie :: Fernie Golf and Country Club

Greens and Grounds at the Fernie Golf and Country Club

Drinking water is now available on the course, unfortunately due to the turbidity warnings issued early in the season by the City of Fernie we had to delay providing drinking water on the course. In the future if turbidity warnings are issued again we hope to maintain drinking water as Fernie Quality Car Wash are generously allowing the use of their water purification system that makes water safe to drink; we thank them for their help in this area.

June/July 2011 Maintenance Schedule

V-cutting all greens on July 4th (Maintenance day)
Ongoing efforts to promote grass density on the fringe cut of the green
Continued efforts to humanely reduce the gopher population
Aggressive weed control
We are bringing back the fringe cut off the fairways to soften ball speed before the rough cut. We have a new mower that achieves a more consistent cut compared to the old mower.
Re-staining bridges.
Timely top dressings to maintain thatch layers and putting consistency.
Irrigation repairs and valve replacements as our ageing infrastructure is showing signs of fatigue. If you see bulging turf please report ASAP to a course marshal, pro shop staff or maintenance staff.
Aggressive aeration , slit seeding and topdressing of week area's on tees, and fairways.

Green Speed (weather and ground conditions permitting)
This year the rain and low ground temperatures, disease pressure and trying to achieve correct nutrient levels for turf quality as well prevent surge growths has been a challenge but

Wednesdays - Roll the greens.
Fridays - Roll the greens.
Things to remember when considering green speed are the weather and what time you are playing; the greens are cut once a day at 6:00 am and if you are playing at 6:00 pm they would have 12 hours growth, we find that rolling the greens definately helps to achieve a consistent speed later into the day.

The year so far...
Due to the mild temperatures and wet weather grass growth has been slow and the ground remains soft. The soft ground has not allowed us to access some areas where we need to carry out remedial work required after the winter for fear of damaging the ground. As the course firms up we will be able to get machinery to these areas to progress with necessary work.

Projects Planned for 2011

Clubhouse Deck
After numerous attempts to contract out the deck resurfacing we have decided to do the project in house as we were unable to hire contractors within our budget. This project will take approximately one week to complete but we need the cooperation of the weather because we need dry warm weather between the multi stage process. We thank you for your patience as we get through this project.

Hole 7 Tee Box
Projected start date: June 2011
To relieve stress on the existing mid and forward tee box and to encourage regrowth of turf we are creating a second tee box in front of the current back tee box on the other side of the water. This will allow us to alternate the tee placements for the mid and forward tees.

Improve power cart access to the driving range
Projected start date: July 2011
To remove the need to weave power carts through the usual chicane of players and power carts at number one tee when accessing the driving range a new cart path will be built between the 18th green and the practice green ending at the bridge to the driving range where a parking area and turn around will be constructed. This will make access to the driving range for power cart users much more intuitive and reduce the possibility of injury to players congregating at the number one tee. We are also going to be constructing a grass tee area the left of the driving range bunker.

Hole 5 Tee Box
Projected start date: July 2011
The existing tee box is too small for the high level of golfers so to relieve stress the following work is planned

Re-site existing cart path that crosses between the back and mid tee boxes down the players left side of the mid tee box.
Bring cart path back over to the players right between the mid and forward tee boxes.
Fill in where the current cart path crosses between the back and mid tee boxess to make one large tee box for the back and mid tees.

Hole 4 Tee Box
Projected start date: Fall 2011
The existing tee box is too small for the high level of golfers so to relieve stress the following work is planned

Remove some trees on the players right.
Extend the back tee forward to join up with the current mid tee box.
Extend the new bigger tee box to the players right.

Hole 13 Water Hazard Liner
This project has been delayed because the flow of water into the pond has been too high to be pumped out. At this time we are waiting for water input levels to recede so the contractor can proceed with the installation of the pond liner.