What to Do Next? There's Always Something...

There are alot of projects on the go at Capilano. I will try to start making some posts of these projects and their progression. The first is some work that was done behind the 8th green. This area used to be treed and would create excess shade on the green leading to disease problems. The trees were removed last winter and have been replaced with an attractive mounded area. Trees and small shrubs have now been planted and the area may be used as a nursery for trees. There is still more work to be done in the future, but right now it looks amazing.

Installing irrigation to water the sod that would be planted

 

 

 A progression of the mounds being formed

The final product

Internship - April

Wow, it's been almost a month since I started at Capilano. Time seems to be flying by since we've gotten into full swing. This spring has been a busy time at the course with aeration, projects and battling the weather. Thankfully I have three great mentors, Jamie Robb, Michael Newton, and our new second assistant Eric Gratopp, and excellent coworkers who have all been teaching me and instructing me.

This April has been one of the coldest and wettest in the history of Vancouver. That hasn't slowed us down at all though. Contractors have been a common site with our new maintenance building coming to completion. The course aeration took a week of hard work from a large staff. There are a lot of projects being completed every day, and its hard to keep up with at times. My responsibilities during this time have been varied but I have had many opportunities to learn and try new things. Some of these include:
- Fertilizer calibration
- Tank mixing
- Fairway Primo applications
- Stimping and monitoring soil temperatures
- Adjusting height of cut and bedknife to reel contact
- Walking mower operation

I've been taking lots of pictures as well. The course is beautiful, and I feel truly blessed to be working at such an amazing course.

The Capilano Clubhouse

A practice green/tee box seeded by the clubhouse

Trials of Fiesta I am trying, I will post an update about this when it is concluded

Hole number 1, Hathstauwk

The old lunchroom

The new lunchroom

Enjoying a round of golf at Cap

Hole 17, Sleeping Beauty

My morning duty includes setting up the mowers so they can get out as quick as possible

Sandy Point Golf Course Design

As a part of our construciton and design course, our class had the opportunity to design and layout a 18-hole golf course. We were excited when we learned our designs would be done on an actual location where a golf course will be developed. The location is at Gull Lake in Alberta. There is currently a proposal to build a resort area, and the golf course is a major part of the project. The idea is to create a family friendly location for people to live or visit on vacation.

Location for the Sandy Point Resort located on the west side of Gull Lake

This project was not only fun, but also challenging. It took creativity and patience to design the course. Along the way our instructor, Jason Pick, taught us about design strategies and practices, both historical and modern. We took these ideas from lecture and put them into practice with our designs. The program we used for this was AutoCAD 2011. This allowed us to give a visual representation of our designs with relative ease and speed.

My completed 18-hole design

There were a couple design features I focused on in my design. I wanted to make sure that it was designed with a front and back nine. Since this is a resort course for the whole family, I wanted the course to have that flexibility in the ways it can be played. Another major design feature was the course routing. I wanted to ensure safety for the areas around the golf course. The last thing I would want is for golf balls to be flying into RV sites and the road. Since the majority of golf players hit to the right, the outside holes all go clockwise. This will reduce the amount of shots that may fly out of bounds.

The last part of the project was to create a presentation and deliver it to the our whole class as well as the developer of the development. Each student had the opportunity to walk through their design and receive input from our guest. I was pleased with my presentation and overall design, and it was well received. Click here to download the presentation.