2013 Debry Champions!

The 2013 Derby was one of closest Events we have seen in many years! Seven teams had a legitimate shot at winning the Overall Championship. The victorious team was led by Peter Leaney with Grant Barrett, Steve Flude and Mike McGarragle making up the Team.

Their total of 58 points narrowly edged the team of Suzi Snow Liska, John Liska, Heinz Dahn and John Eales. Third overall went to Greg Haley, Steve Stuart, Brian Guenther, Bob Doyle and Paul Cormier who ended up with 47 points.

The Leaney team were also the Day 3 winners. Their combined net score of 197 edged out three teams who tied for second place. The following teams all fired outstanding rounds of 198.
Ed and Ann Griffin, Barb Rogers and Peter Schuch
Josh Hewitt, Mark Burrell, Mike Karl and Craig Ferns
Suszi Snow Liska, John Liska, Heinz Dahn and John Eales

The Closest to Hole on the 12th went to Al Kershaw.

Congratulations to all the Teams for an outstanding Event!

Derby - Day 2

Talk about parity! The top 11 teams yesterday were seperated by 3 1/2 strokes!

The winning Team of the Day Two format was Greg Haley, Steven Stuart, Brian Gunther and Bob Doyle who came in with a net score of 120.5.

Second place went to the team of Kim Blake, John Trimble, Bob Nebel and Dennis Matton who fired a 121.

There was a three way tie for 3rd place with all the teams that shot 121.5.
Ed and Ann Griffin, Peter Schuch and Barb Rogers
Mike McGarragle, Peter Leaney, Steve Flude and Grant Barrett
Chris and Debbie Couch, Bernie Docking and Kevin Duda

The overall Tournament lead goes to the Matton Team - who are shown below with their fancy shorts and the team of Suzi Snow Liska, John Liska, Heinz Dahn and John Eales.
Their two round total of 36 is one clear of the Mike McGarragle foursome.

Closest to the Pin on the 12th was captured by Steve Flude!

Spring Derby 2013

The Derby is under way and the first group out in the morning posted a score that couldn't be matched! The Team of Suzi Snow- Liska, John Liska, John Eales and Heinz Dahn had a great quota point total of 112.

Close behind in second place is the team of Mike McGarragle, Steve Flude, Peter Leaney and Grant Barrett. They were 1 point back with 111 quotas.

The third place team of Jeff Sinovic, Joe McGillion, Brad Haley and Nick Iordanis shot 107 quotas. The team must have been concentrating on playing well and forgot to drop by the parimutual table!!

We had a first ever in the Closest to the Hole competition. A TIE!! Dennis Matton and Al Kershaw both had fine shots in on the 12th Hole.

The Raffle being run by the Junior Committee for the use a prime parking spot kicked off yesterday. Tickets can be purchased in the Pro Shop.

 

This past Tuesday morning we arrived at work to a significant frost.  We always have a frost job list for such mornings, and we regularly take advantage of these delays to complete and fine tune staff training. It is usually a low stress start to the morning when these frosts occur. This past Tuesday may have seemed relatively stress free early on, but little did I know that was about to change.

Soon after we sent a few bodies to get started I received a message from one staff member that there was, and I quote, “A lot of water down on 5”. I knew right away the only way there was any water down on 5, would be because we must have an issue with the irrigation system. I must admit that I have had many irrigation issues during my career, but I was not prepared for what I was about to see. I knew we had a big problem when I was still up near 3 green/4tees and I could see an absolute lake in the valley. Once I got down there, I realized we did indeed have a lot of water “down on 5”, but as unbelievable as this sounds, the problem was actually on 6!

 

These pictures don’t do the scene I witnessed justice. We don’t know exactly what time it was when the failure of the pipe occurred, but we do know that almost 700,000 gallons of water was pumped into the valley overnight between the pipe failing, and us getting the system sectioned off. When you run into a problem like this, it is imperative to know every inch of the irrigation design off by heart, this is no time to pull out drawings trying to figure out how to close the right valves to shut off the problem area.

Keeping as much of the system pressurized is imperative as we have many seeded areas, new sod, sprigs and transplanted trees we need to get water to regularly, so just shutting down the entire system is not an option.

You know you have an issue when the leak is in 6 fairway.........and 5 approach is flooded!

 

After we got the area sectioned off from the rest of the system, we could do nothing but wait for the water to recede on its own, this took a full 24 hours. The following morning we started to dig…………well, more specifically I sent Steve, to start to dig.

After 5 hours of trying to expose the problem pipe, I realized that there was no way we could do it with shovels. Unfortunately we do not have a back hoe in our arsenal, so a couple phone calls later I found a mini excavator that we could get on site shortly after lunch.

I had no idea how big a problem we had until we finally got things exposed. What I anticipated was a section of pipe that might be between 1 and 2 feet long that needed to be cut out and replaced, turned out to be and entire 20 foot length of pipe that failed from end to end.

Some people might not be surprised we had a problem when you see all the rock we are trying to grow fine turf on. Having rock up against plastic pipe is not advisable, but this area was most likely river bed during the last ice age melt, and significant rocks are located below the surface.

This is the side of the trench we dug to get at the irrigation line. Some might wonder how we are able to grow any grass at all.

 

 

As I got to “play on the Mini Ex”, Kyle and Steve got into the trench and did all the dirty work.  12 hours later we had the repair complete. We let the new glue joints dry and cure overnight and pressurized first thing this morning. We back filled in short order, but the actual restoration of this area will take some time. The area we dug up to complete the repair is approximately 2 feet wide by 26 feet long, but the area disturbed by all that water pumping underground is huge.  We will do our best to get this area back in shape in the next couple of weeks, and lets hope the rest of the season is uneventful for the turf department, I don’t think my sanity can take much more.

 

Here is the scene 24 hours after the water was shut down, but before the dig to repair has been started. The main pipe failure is left under the sink hole but as you can see, substantial damage to the surrounding are will need significant restoration.

 

              Finally, damaged pipe is replaced and the failure to the pipe we removed is very obvious.

Callaway Fitting Day

Callaway Fitting Day

Wednesday May 15th

12 to 6

Come out to see the new products from Callaway
Featuring the new X Hot line

So the aerification is done.........................now what?

Well, in a way we wait. Only time will allow the turf to grow itself enough to heal so all greens are back to 100%. Once that happens, we can lower the height of cut and get to the green speeds and smooth putts we are looking for. For the next week we will be mowing greens in the afternoon. If you were playing on Friday you may have been interrupted by Murray and me trying to mow greens around play. The reason for this afternoon mow is that the sand sticks to the mowers when there is any moisture present. Mowing in the morning when dew is present only cause’s problems as the sand sticks to the rollers and drums and then falls into clumps on the putting surface. The goal is to leave the sand where it is and let the turf grow up and overtop. So mowing when the turf is dry is our best option to promote faster and proper healing.

With the cool wet spring we dealt with we are currently behind in many jobs. At this point our labour is under budget by approximately $12,000

This is not a savings, it is a sign of all the jobs we could not get done that still needs our attention. Not that I want to point out weakness on the course, but you don’t have to look too hard to see all the things we still need to finish. Like the stump removal areas which need finishing with soil and sod. The drain line on the right side of 16 is still open. We are behind in the trimming…………..I mean have you looked at the grass around the bunkers????

Mulch need to be hauled out of the parking lot and taken down to 5 and 12 greens and spread out, divots in fairways need attention, we have sod to finish up at the 2^nd and 11^th tees, bench pads at the 6^th and 14^th tees still need flagstone, bunkers need fine tuning, weeds need spraying. There are irrigation sprinklers to adjust, soil to add around the catch basin back right of 14 green before we can finish and sod…………wow, the list goes on. So thanks for being patience with us whether we are mowing greens around you in the afternoon, or whether your ball comes to land in an area that’s not ready for play, we will get to these jobs!

On a side not long time and dedicated staff member Mickey McCue has been off with some minor health issues. He is currently on medication and resting comfortably at home. Doctors are watching to make sure medication is improving his condition and although we think he will be off for a few more weeks, we anticipate him back for June at the latest. Get well soon Mick!

Hart sinks his First!

Richard Hart made the first Hole in One of the season and the first of his golfing career with a great shot on hole # 9. It is the second time we have had a Hole in One during a Men's Opening Event and as you can imagine the Insurance didn't last long at the Bar!!

Richard Hart, Kim Blake, Dave Convery and Bob Williams

 

It is hard to believe but that is the first Hole in One at Whitevale since Tom O'Connor made his in July last summer.

Congratulations Richard!

 

What a Weekend!

Men's & Women's Opening Field Days

The weather was smiling on Whitevale this weekend with not a snowfalke in sight! This may the earliest date that the Events have been held due to the way the calendar lined up and the resulting effect it had on our greens schedule.

The Women's Opening Field Day took place on Saturday morning with 40 players participating.

The new format of using 3 drives each seemed to be well received. It certainly worked for the winning Team of Jan Pugh, Lisa Brewer, Anne Hill and Janet Martinko who fired a net 67.4.

Second Place went to the Team of Angela Colm, Mary Charlton, Norma Columbus and Teresa Arbuthnot who shot a net 70.4. The Team of Ann Griffin, Lynne Sage, Kandice Brackenbury and Betty Lemon finished in third place with a score of 71.0.

 

The Men's Opening Field  Day had a wonderful turnout of 140 players. The spectacular weather saw an equally impressive winning score!

 

The winning Team of Mike Lindsay, Birthday Boy - Pat Burrell (he didn't give us his age), Stan Lam and Heinz Ludwig shot a net 57.5 which was 2 shots clear of the field.

Second place went to the team of Pat Lamanna, Al Swartz, Alex Maggiacomo and Bob Tennyson fired a net 59.5 narrowly edging Ed Hanna's team of Walt Lemon, John Doyle and Elmar Moser who carded a net 60.3.

Bob Nebel splashes it close on # 18

The Famous McAuley Walk Through!

 

 

A SNEAK PEEK.........

 

Things are slowly starting to get going on the golf course. We got the greens mowers out for the first time today. As it turns out, only 6 greens on the entire property had any growth to mow off. All but one of them were tarped since November.

 

Below, Mickey puts the first cut on 12 green for the season.

 

 

 

As mentioned in an earlier Blog, we are much further behind getting the course prepared for opening than we have in the last bunch of years. Notice all the snow still on the left of both photos? We still have snow and ice along tree lines and in some bunkers. Clean up has only just begun this week and I hate to say, but next week has significant rain in the forecast, which, if we get, will stall the clean up causing us more grief. With less than two weeks to our opening date, it is becoming clear we will be no where near as prepared as we always strive to be. We will undoubtedly be continuing clean up around play in April. Lets just hope we get some spring like weather before July gets here.  

 

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