April 15, 2021 Course and Club House Update | West Hills Golf

Another view of the clubhouse from the 9 approach.

West Hills

Fredericton

Hi Folks,

I hope this update finds all well and still excited for the upcoming year. The snow has finally melted, even in the dark corners of the golf course and the frost is coming out of the ground. Work continues on the club house, both exterior and interior, and we are working on the course to recover from the winter.

Like the March Update I’ll lead with some photos of the Club house so you can see the progress.

Drywall being installed on the second floor of the clubhouse. — The Multi Purpose room on the second floor is really taking shape now that the drywall has been installed.

A view of the multipurpose room under construction. — Multi Purpose room from another angle.

The simulator room and members lounge under construction. — Although hard to see (no lights installed yet) this will be the simulator room and the members lounge. The open space in the wall will house a window to spectate and or heckle.

The restaurants stone patio under construction. — The stone patio out side the restaurant is almost finished and the siding is being installed

Another view of the restaurants stone patio. — Same patio from the south side

A one tee side view of the club house under construction — Here’s the club house from the one tee side. The stone work on the wall facing the parking lot is making great progress and looking great!

The interior of the clubhouse under construction. — The interior of the existing clubhouse is also getting a facelift. We are adding an office for Brett and reconfiguring the hall to create an entrance to the new facility.

The slightly warmer weather we’ve been experiencing is beginning to show us where the golf course has suffered from the winter. As predicted from the samples we had pulled early March, there are pockets of ice injury around the golf course. 18, 10 13, 7 have taken the worst of the damage, suffering roughly a 60 percent loss sporadically around the greens and predominantly in the low areas.

Ice damage on the 18 green. — 18 green Ice damage

Slight damage of the back of the green, number 7. — Number 7, back of the green

Multiple people tarping the number 10 green. — Number 10 green freshly tarped. Our tarping team today from the left are Mack, Lincoln and AJ.

Slight damage to the number 7 green. — Number 7 in the front.

The current temperatures (with the exception of a few out lying days) have been below the level where the turf will really take off. I am encouraged by the growth that we’ve had already, during the small amount of warmth we experienced. The healthy plants will take advantage of the warmth and grow more quickly while the damage plants will be slow to show any movement. As things get warmer and the plants find themselves in better growing conditions the less healthy will show improvement.

Our process to correct the damage includes a hard brushing in both directions, fertilize with plant available liquid fertilizer, over seeding with our bent grass seeder, roll and then covering the green with a tarp to elevate the temperatures. We would normally include watering the seed, but I am concerned about any lingering frost in the ground that might damage the irrigation system. This weekend is supposed to be wet, and we will most likely charge the system next week to continue keeping the seed moist. As a side note, this is the earliest I have ever seeded in New Brunswick, typically the first week of May is our target.