Course News

Course Update – October 14, 2025

On behalf of the Turfcare team we would like to thank membership for the support throughout the 2025 golf season.  It was one of the better summers on record with timely rainfalls, lots of sunlight and one of the best falls we have experienced for the game of golf.  Weather only impacted course availability one time this season with a closure in late fall due to heavier rainfall.

With the course closed the Turfcare team will focus the next few weeks on preparing the course for winter.  There are a significant number of check marks that need to be achieved to provide the property with the best possible chance at a successful winter.  This includes many product applications timed accordingly with weather and forecast.  We will topdress all tees and fairways with a layer of sand to assist in protecting the crowns of the poa plants through winter.  Accessories will be removed and ready for refurbishing throughout the winter.  Balancing the winter preparation items with continued maintenance and some small projects that we hope will improve the experience for next season.  When we are finished with these items the Turfcare team will flip into tree work and removal for the months of November and into December.  There are a number of trees in need of removal and this program will continue throughout winter into the New Year.

We hope all members have a great winter ahead and we look forward to welcoming you all back to Niakwa in the spring of 2026.

Course Update – September 30

The warm fall weather continues with near record temperatures.  This has been great for the fall game of golf.  The forecast is showing signs of changing patterns and it appears as we will begin to see some frosts in the near future.  Frosts are essential for preparing the turf for winter.  The more active turf is as we near snow fall the more concern there is with overwintering success.  Frosts slow down the plant physiology and assist in setting up the plant for winter success.  A reminder that when frosts do setup the goal for the Turfcare team is to minimize maintenance when possible to get members golfing as soon as we can.  Depending on the repetitiveness of the frosts some delays may be longer than others to accommodate late season product applications and maintenance.

Leaves continue to fall.  We have had a few repetitive days of winds that create challenges in keeping the course tidy throughout the day.  We are bowing all playing surfaces each morning into out of play or rough areas where they can be mulched when time and conditions allow.

This past Monday we completed aeration practices to all fairways and tee boxes.  We also took advantage of the maintenance window to apply a granular fertilizer to greens.  This product was watering in heavily.  Monday evening we received a half inch of rainfall through the night which in combination with the fertilizer application will have greens softer and slower to start the week.

Course Update – Bug Spray

A reminder that bug spray kills turf.  Pictured below is the 6^th green.  This application of bug spray has killed this area of the green and it will need to be repaired.  Bug spray damage does not recover especially on greens.  On higher cut turf such as fairways and rough it can take in excess of 6 weeks to recover from the damage done.

• Bug spray should only be applied on permeable surfaces and never on any grass

Thank you for your cooperation.

Turfcare management

Course Update – September 23rd

The unseasonably warm weather continues this fall.  This past weekend we were fortunate to receive 1.75 inches of rainfall on the golf course.  While this was a little more rain than we wanted the course benefited greatly from it.  To start the week greens will be slower and very soft.  With the forecast we hope they will firm up by the end of the week to provide the members with good putting conditions to enjoy during this warm fall run.  We have applied another regulator to greens this week to try and slow down the abundance of growth we are seeing.

 With the warm weather fall grass growth and golf course demands continue to be that of the prime playing season.  The rough, fairways and tees continue to grow with no sign of slowing.  The Turfcare team is doing their best to keep up with the mowing demands daily. Leaves are now falling at a steady pace.  We are busy with blowers each day pushing leaves into tree line areas where we can then mulch. 

Monday this week with maintenance day an herbicide spray was made to all rough and park areas on the golf course including the parking lot and clubhouse areas.  Fairways and tees received a fungicide application to deal with some late season disease pressure that is magnified with the fall weather we are experiencing. The signature Elm tree on hole 10 was pruned and deadwood removed.  These items took away from some grooming and mowing practices which we will work to catch up through the remainder of this week but it was a very beneficial maintenance day for the golf course.

The forecast looks excellent in the days ahead for some great fall golf.  A reminder that the last day for golf will be October 13^th the Thanksgiving Monday.  While the weather continues to be great, sticking with a hard closing date has provided Niakwa’s membership with excellent course conditions over the past number of years allowing the property to be ready for winter and giving us the best possible chance at successful spring conditions.

Course Update – September 16th

This past Sunday late afternoon and all day Monday the Turfcare team completed the fall aeration program on greens.  On Sunday cores were taken out of the older poa greens and the older bentgrass greens.  On Monday we completed a sand application to all greens followed by a deep tine vent.  Over the next few days we will battle the sand and poor quality of cuts on greens which will result in inconsistent and slower putting surfaces.  While we were able to complete the cultural program on greens we came up short of applying the fall fertilizer applications required.  These are scheduled now to take place next Monday in the maintenance window.  

With the time of year we will begin to raise the height of cuts on greens this week.  We will make an incremental increase for the time being.  With this increase in heights green speeds will begin to slow down.  While the weather outside continues to be superb it would be a critical error to continue to chase greens speeds and performance this late in the season.  For the remainder of the golf season the focus is on plant health to ensure that we are in the best possible position for a successful winter.  Please continue to repair ball marks and fill divots as the turf has begun to slowdown in growth and recovery time is also reduced with the shorter days. 

Tee and fairway aeration began on Sunday with the greens program.  We have completed the first 8 holes on the property.  This program will resume over the next 7 to 10 days until we have completed all items.

We would like to thank the membership for the time to complete these programs which in turn provide Niakwa with a healthy property for the game of golf. 

The leaves have begun to fall at a more consistent pace.  The strong winds to start the week have them littering the property.  The Turfcare team will continue to send blowers each morning to clear the leaves off the prime play areas.  Once we have completed all prime play areas we will then blow the leaves further into the rough and tree lines where they can be mulched.  On days of heavy wind please note it will be difficult to keep play surfaces free of leaf debris.

Course Update – September 9th

Our first fall frosts have hit the property this past weekend.  Frost delays have long been a part of golf.  The goal for the Turfcare team when we have a frost delay is to minimize maintenance and get the game of golf going as soon as possible.  There are factors that affect the decision as to how fast we can get game of golf out.  Repetitive frosts will most certainly lead to an occasional longer delay.  We can only minimize maintenance so many days consecutively.  We are also in the time of season when product applications become difficult to fit in around frost and windy days. These applications during the fall are critical for successful wintering of the golf course.  If we need to apply a product and have not had cooperation from Mother Nature this is another scenario that can cause a longer delay.  We know that traffic on frost covered grass will cause death that can take 6 plus weeks to recover.  This time of year it will not. Please refrain from walking on turf when we are in a frost delay this fall.

Range deck will return to mats next Monday September 15^th.  This will be setup during the course closure for aeration.  Reminder that the course is closed Sunday September 14^th in the afternoon and all day on September 15^th for aeration.  The greens are in desperate need of these cultural items and we hope the weather will cooperate.  Fairway and tee aeration will begin on these days but will not be completed.  The aeration process of fairways and tee’s will continue until completed this fall.

On the other side of aeration we will begin to back off on height of cut on greens as we move towards our winter heights.  While the forecast is decent for the next 10 days we will stick with our program of backing off this time of year to assist in setting the plants up for a successful winter.  Daily mowing will no longer take place we will alternate mowing and rolling practices dependent on ball roll and growth.

With the two light frosts we expect the battle of leaves to begin shortly.  We will do our best to blow all prime play areas in the morning.  Leaves will be blown into tree lines and rough areas then we will turn around and mulch them throughout the day.  At times there will be heavy masses of leaves in tree lines.

We continue to deal with fox damage each morning to greens and bunkers.  The repairs of the greens will be priority in the morning and we will attend to bunkers when time allows.

Course Update – September 2nd

The month of September is a challenging one for the Turfcare team.  With the return to studies the staff has seen a reduction in size of over 50% daily.  Keeping up with the details and the expectations of the course will be difficult.  On a daily basis to prepare the prime playing surfaces we rely on having a minimum of 15 team members.  This does not include other items such as spraying, watering and mowing rough.  On any given day for the remainder of the season the Turfcare team will be lucky to have 12-14 staff available.  Many items will become reactionary and our main focus for the remainder of the prime playing days will be to care for the greens and work our way out across the property from there.

This is a good time to remind the morning golfers of the pace of play policy in place to allow the small team size time and room to prepare as much of the course as possible for all members.  We will continue to hold members who are playing the front 9 quicker than 1 hour and 45 minutes.  Waiting on the game of golf for maintenance moving forward will not be efficient and with the reduction in team size we need as many efficiencies as possible to keep the conditioning acceptable. 

Bunker raking has been reduced to one or two days per week.  With this knowledge members can assist the conditions by simply taking your time to rake a bunker if you have played in it.  Not raking bunkers is an unacceptable practice that continues to take away from the property this season.  The condition of bunkers for the remainder of the season will fall heavily on the membership to care for.

Greens while the focus are beginning to see a reduction in rolling with the staffing numbers.  We will continue to mow greens daily until we see frost and growth slow.  Green speeds will fluctuate daily depending on if the rollers are able to go or not. 

We would like to thank the team members who have returned to studies for the help this summer and wish them all the best.

Course Update – August 26

With the end of August comes the return of studies and many of our Turfcare staff have begun to leave us for the summer.  We would like to thank the team members for their efforts this summer and wish them all the best with their studies.  With the reduction in staff, membership can expect course conditions to change.  We have gone from a team size of approximately 20 per day down to 12 depending on the day.  It takes 15 people minimum to mow all prime play areas not including items like spraying, watering and rough mowing. Bunker raking will now be minimal.  This is a great opportunity for membership to show their course care skills and assist the course conditions by ensuring that you rake the bunker once you have played in it.  We will be lucky to rake bunkers in their entirety once or twice per week moving forward.  There will be few opportunities to rake them ahead of golf and they will become a secondary task.

Details such as bunker weeding, string trimming and hand mowing will be reduced.  These items will become reactionary and secondary to prime play areas.  Rolling frequencies will be reduced and at times we will alternate mowing and rolling practices to accommodate other demands on the property. Greens will continue to be priority and we will work our way through the rest of the property when time allows on other items. With shorter days and cooler weather on the horizon we are hopeful that the mowing demands created by ample August rain will slow which will allow us to focus on other details through the remainder of the season.   

Course Update – August 19

The wet month of August continued with another 1 inch rainfall this past Sunday night.  The golf course is beginning to fall behind in grooming and mowing practices with the repetitive heavier rain events.  This accompanied by the loss of maintenance Monday to the long weekend last week and a large corporate event this past Monday has the Turfcare team behind in many aspects of maintenance.  Greens being the most important we are now well behind in cultural practices.  Ball roll will not be as true and greens as fast as we would like this time of year.  The lack of topdressing, the inability to control moisture means until we have a window of time to resume with cultural practices and get cooperation from Mother Nature we can expect them to be softer and slower.

Rough is growing fast with the abundance of rain.  We are doing what we can to keep up with it.  This week we will be doing laps around each hole to keep the immediate play areas as groomed as possible as we will not have the time to complete the rough program across the course.  With more forecasted rain late in the week we will push to mow as much as we can.  When we are this saturated mowing practices are reduced to minimize negative impacts from the equipment and reduce the amount of repair work required.  Once we have a dry stretch of weather and the ground conditions improve we will regain control of the grooming practices across the property.

Course Update – August 12th

Some very welcomed rain events fell over the later part of the week and into the weekend.  These rains have significantly transformed the aesthetics of the course.  In total just shy of 3 inches has fallen in the last week which is greater than what we had received the entire summer to date.  With the repetitive rains playing conditions and grooming are a little behind.  Greens are saturated, soft and have slowed down until we regain control of the moisture.  Rough has increase in growth rates and we are doing our best to stay on top of it.  We are hopeful for a good week this week weather wise to allow us to tighten up the grooming across the property and set the stage for a great month of August.