Footings Complete

The last week of May was a busy week for R2R. The footings are done, the forms have been delivered and starting next week will the foundation walls.

If you haven't yet followed @WhitevaleGC on Twitter, you should to receive daily snapshots of the build.

Earlier in the week the boxes for the concrete being built.

 Looks like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Lets hope they don't have any left over pieces.

Concrete being poured on Wednesday.

 Finished product.

 The Grill Room footings.

 The crew did get some forms built today.

But looks like all the material is on site.

Below is what the view will be when you are sitting in the new Grill Room.



Whitevale Pro's Win!

Our very own golf professional team of Steve Rodriguez and Kevan Gobel once again put Whitevale in the winners circle yesterday winning the Pro/Pro event at The Club at North Halton carding a score of -7 under 65.

Way to go lads, keep making us proud!

For those member who would like to sponsor Steve this year (and any amount appreciated) you can email or call Diane in the office and ask her to charge your account. the club will then forward the sponsorship dollars onto Steve. The season started late and the tournament schedule is packed but Steve has already had a couple of 2nd place finishes and now a victory.

Lets get behind our guys and see how many W's Whitevale can rack up in a season.

Below is the full Press Release:

Whitevale GC pair wins 2014 PGA of Ontario Pro/Pro Championship presented by Boutique Pro Golf

For Immediate Release
May 27, 2014

GEORGETOWN - As the old saying goes, "If at first you don't succeed, try again," so that's exactly what Kevan Goble and Steve Rodriguez took to the bank winning the 2014 PGA of Ontario Pro Pro Championship presented by Boutique Pro Golf at The Club at North Halton.

While many of the two-person teams in this popular PGA of Ontario championship have been trying to win this one for years, some for decades, Goble and Rodriguez, made good in only their second appearance together as they carded a sweet 7-under par 65 to take the title by a single shot over the pairings of Craig Marseilles and Brian McCann and Gary Jeffery and Bruce Rogerson at 6-under, 66.

"Last year I resodded the lawn the day before this championship and it caught up with me as the day went on," said Rodriguez who works at Whitevale Golf Club with Goble. "This time around Kevan threatened to decapitate me if I did any yard work so I just took it easy on Sunday."

They made an early charge with consecutive birdies on the first four holes they played. That set the tone for much of the afternoon at the Club at North Halton, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. "We had one bogey last year and one bogey this year, both on the same hole, No. 14," Goble said, noting they may play it a little different in 2015! The duo shared a first-place cheque for $3,200.

The Whitevale twosome was paired with the team of Josh Growden and two-time winner Ken Fulton, who won back in 1978 with Phil Brownlee and then in 2001 with Tim McKeiver. "Josh and Ken made a pile of birdies and we seemed to keep feeding off each other. It was awesome to play with a guy who won this event over 30 years ago and is still playing it today. We'd be lucky to have a swing like Kenny 30 years from now," said Rodriguez, who is focusing on bringing his game up a notch or two with his sights set on playing competitive golf at a higher level. Rodriguez and Goble lost in a playoff last October in the PGA of Ontario Fall Scramble and they were one shot from a playoff earlier this month at the PGA of Ontario Assistants' Team Championship.

"If one of them wasn't near the hole, the other one was and they just kept making the putts," Fulton noted. "Accept for the one bogey they were pretty solid and fun to watch."

Six teams finished T4 at 5-under par, 67 including; Alf Callowhill/Joshua Doan, Dan Clark/Frank McMulkin, Danny King/Ed Maunder, John Rushnell/Bill Walsh Jr., Ken Tarling/John White and Ron Kenesky/Matt Peavoy.

For the first time in recent memory the championship was filled to capacity and there was a waiting list for others hoping to get a spot. "It's a great gathering of all the boys, a reunion with some of the seniors like Dan Clark, and an opportunity to see some of the young guns bomb it past each other," said three-time Pro Pro Champion Bob Panasik, who played in a group that included; Ryan Hughes, Danny King and Ed Maunder. "It's one of those days that you can share some stories, have some fun and go home with a few more new stories for next year."


For more information please contact:

Kevin Purcell
Executive Director
PGA of Ontario

Men's Opening Field Day

The say good things come to those who wait. Well, we waited and waited and waited, finally Mother Nature gave us a weekend we could only dream of a few short weeks ago.

And the lad's took over the course for the Men's Opening Field Day.........

 Tee's pushed all the way back on #7 today, what a view.

Standing room only in the courtyard as the results are being calculated.

With his team finishing second last, Captain Campbell has called for an immediate audit of handicaps and pairings.

The audit showed no significant issues (although Glenn as the B player is still being debated). Nevertheless, congrats to the 2014 Men's Opening Camps. The Team of Brian, Glenn, Brian and Kevin.

Women's Opening Field Day

Women's opening field day was held today with half of the lady members participating.

All we can say about that is.....................


Whitevale Women you rock!!

Court yard is packed and the scores get added up.

Will never get used to the view up #18 without the clubhouse.
 

As Kevan would say, not much wrong with Lisa's swing in this picture.

The 2014 Women Opening Field Day Champs! Marilyn, Kandice, Dee and Lori. Congratulation ladies.

Finally, opening day

One month to the day from the originally planned 2014 opening day, and we finally have opened the doors to the new golf season. A rain event over night dumped 3/4" and made for a damp course. We allowed power carts out after roping off the wettest areas. If you were out on the golf course this morning you would have had the chance to see the greens as we pulled tarps off long enough to mow them. With a current temperature of only 9 and a forecasted low of 2, the tarps are already back in place. I am happy to report we have had significant growth over the last 12 days on all greens..

 



Here is the 2nd green on May 1st

And here is the 2nd green this morning, May 16th

16th green on May 1st

And these two pictures both taken this morning before the mower was on it

 

All greens have made good progress, but are still very young and fragile. Many members have asked me this morning when these green will open. It's just to early to say. We need some realistic temperatures so we can remove the tarps for good and begin mowing everyday to help promote lateral growth. At this point they look good, but have no density to them whatsoever. It is vital we don't put play on them too early. Allowing the traffic onto new turf too early will significantly set them backwards and put them under stress just before the heat of summer hits us which will make them weak and susceptible to the summer stresses.

We are also continuing to prune broken and hung up branches from the canopy of our trees. If you see this 50 foot boom Genie working please stay far away as branches will be falling to the ground constantly and the operator has very poor visibility of the area below his work platform.

My entire crew deserve a huge thank you from me as well as every member for getting the course to where it is for opening day. If it wasn't for their work ethic and dedication to this golf course we would not have accomplished so much over the last month. Well done gang! A staff Bar-b-q on the 30th of May hardly seem reward for all you have done this spring.

Opening Day

A few more days and we will finally be open for the 2014 season. It sounds like the excavation for the clubhouse will be finished for Friday. This is great news as we currently have dump trucks running around like mad finding new locations to dump the fill created.

We did take advantage of having the heavy equipment on site to create a new path for the season. This will lead members from the parking lot, behind the temporary trailers and to the first tee. We have been able to make it large enough to allow power carts to travel on it. However, this is a temporary path and we may have to repair it at times throughout the season.

When the snow finally left us we thought the new range tee, all 2 acres of it didn't make it through the winter. The good news is we see some life.
Look close but you can see the germination has started.

The two practice greens on the North side of the entrance road look great.

For those coming to the club this weekend, please remember the bridge in the village is closed for the season.

Permit

Due to this weeks rain, the Region will not lift the road weight restriction until May 6th. Construction on hold until we can float the equipment in.


WE GOT IT!

Now if Mother Nature would be so kind as to work with us a little. We are schedule to start on May 1st when the road restrictions are lifted.

Spring

On April 11th I was going to post a comment declaring Spring has officially arrived at Whitevale Golf Club but then I looked at the long range forecast. It seems like Old Man Winter still has some fight in him as we are expecting the temperature to plunge tonight.

If you have taken the time to read this blog and the newsletter you would be well aware of the damage the ice storm left on the property. Clean up has been slow, as the ice melts and frost starts to come out of the ground. Some of the damage will alter your views when playing the course this year.

The willow on #4 sustained some damage but should recover over time.

 Almost every tree between hole #6 and #7 have sustained damage. Once the tree blooms this will not be as noticeable but the area will be thinner than previous years.

 The Turf crew continues to work on clean up, it is a slow process with the wet grounds and the amount of debris is substantial.

 Crossing the bridge on #13 we now have some "leaning" trees.

This leaning tree shouldn't impact tee shots on #13 - if it does we will need to prune it back.

Not all the tree removal was done by Mother Nature, last fall we did an extensive survey of our trees. We determined that the trees with substantial decayed posed a safety concern and had to be removed. No one likes to voluntarily remove trees but we couldn't take the risk of these trees causing injury or damage to the course. The above picture shows the extent of decay on two of these trees. We are committed to our tree replanting program and have spoken with Tom McBroom about developing a full tree replacement plan for the property. Once we have this plan, we can continue with the process of replacing damage or non-desirable trees with the proper species and most importantly in the proper locations.

 More damage behind #13 Green.

But we will fix all this damage and be better than ever soon enough!

Norm Erickson

It is with deep sadness that we announce that longtime Whitevale Golf Club member, Norman Edward Erickson passed away peacefully at his home on March 29, 2014 in his 79th year.

Norm joined Whitevale back in 1967 and volunteered numerous hours to the development of the club. A former Board member and key player in Whitevale attaining Audubon Society designation, Norm will be greatly missed.

We had a picture hanging in the old clubhouse with Norm crossing the bridge on hole #13. I spoke with Norm about this picture, how a few times each year it would wash away and the members would track it down stream to bring it back.

Crossing the bridge on #13

We will ensure that this picture once again hangs on the walls of Whitevale Golf Club.

Please click the link for full obituary:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestar/obituary.aspx?n=norman-edward-erickson&pid=170435477&fhid=12317

Ice Storm Clean Up Continues

This past week the weather finally cooperated enough that I was finally able to bring in some staff to continue clean up of damage caused by the December ice storm. Although we still have approximately 90% of the golf course still under snow and ice, this layer actually helped us get around the property without causing any damage to the softening turf. In order to keep our limited equipment working I set up split shifts where one crew worked the morning and early afternoon and the second worked afternoon until dark. This allowed 13 hour days on the tractors and chain saws. Due to the remaining snow and ice, using trailers to haul the brush away was very dangerous and had to be discontinued.

This is how our clean up is proceeding. First we used the forks on our loader to lift the large branches out of the snow and ice. Then we used a chain saw to cut the branches into lengths that we could fit onto the front of the loader. When we had a good size load, we drove to one of about half a dozen spots we have deemed brush pile locations.

These carbide tipped additions to our shoes help prevent us from slipping and falling on the ice as we continue the clean up.
As of yesterday, we finished the clean up in the valley, at least all the large branches we could get at that were sticking out of the snow. Until we get a substantial melt, we really don't know how many smaller branches await underneath.

I also rented a Genie boom lift last week in order to get up into the canopy of the trees to cut away branches that were broken but still hung up. This would be a safety hazard if not removed. This was only partially successful as we were only able to maneuver it on relatively flat areas. The significant ice layer made it impossible to climb any grade. Getting into the valley with it was not possible. We will have to bring in a trained and insured tree climbing company to finish this type of work before we open the course to play.

This pile of branches is only from the 7th and part of the 6th holes. We have done our best to pile branches where they will be out of all play, minimally visible, in a location we will not have to handle them a second time and possible burnt at a later date so we don't have to wait for them to decay on their own over the next 100 years. Over the next few weeks as the melt continues and frost begins to come out of the ground, all areas on the golf course will become incredibly soft. I find this to be the most frustrating time of year. We have so much work to accomplish, yet there will be a window where we can't do anything out on the turf because of the damage we would cause. Every year this length of time we must wait is different. If we have regular rain events the course does not dry and firm up enough to get our crew back outside to continue preparations for opening day. Hopefully we will have a dry and warm April which will allow us to be as productive as possible.

This picture might just help all of us find our happy place for just a little while.