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Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n
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Braydon Gilbert, St. Charles Country Club superintendent and greens keeper, leads a dedicated team in keeping the greens at the club their most verdant.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
During golf season, which runs from late-April to mid-October, Gilbert and his senior team gather for their daily huddle at 4:45 a.m. to go through the day\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when we fine-tune what our plan is for the day and tweak it if we need to, based on the weather,\u201d he says. \u201cI usually spend the first four to five hours of the morning out on the course with the staff, keeping an eye on what\u2019s going on and helping out with some tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those tasks is making sure the grass is mowed before club members start trickling in at 7 a.m.<\/p>\n
Gilbert\u2019s daily mandate, among other things, is to ensure the millions of living organisms on the greens remain at just over a tenth of an inch.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a measurement most people would be hard pressed to see without a microscope.<\/p>\n
At a golf course, grass is more than just ground cover; it\u2019s a precisely engineered, living patchwork of different types, lengths and varieties.<\/p>\n
Grass type is selected based on key criteria, including the ability to withstand the local climate, and there are often two to three different botanical varieties planted across the course to suit the demands of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrass types are divided into two categories: cool-season grass grown in northern climates and warm-season grass, typically used in climates like Florida. Here we use creeping bentgrass on our putting greens, tees and fairways,\u201d Gilbert explains.<\/p>\n
Three ways to a better lawn<\/p>\n
Getting results in your own garden comes down to mastering the fundamentals and avoiding a couple of common mistakes. As golf superintendent Braydon Gilbert says, \u201cfocus on the basics.\u201d <\/p>\n
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Getting results in your own garden comes down to mastering the fundamentals and avoiding a couple of common mistakes. As golf superintendent Braydon Gilbert says, \u201cfocus on the basics.\u201d<\/p>\n
1. Double your mowing frequency.<\/p>\n
\u201cMow twice a week instead of once and you\u2019ll get a little bit better density.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Fertilize twice a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cA good time of year is right around the end of May or start of June, and then again right at the end of summer to get things growing in after any summer stress.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. Don\u2019t cut too short before winter<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing I see a lot of people do, especially around here, that I would advise against is mowing their lawn really, really short before winter. You don\u2019t want to be going into winter really long, but don\u2019t go too short either.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The 240,000-square-foot of putting greens are mowed daily to ensure each blade length measures slightly above 2.54 millimetres.<\/p>\n
This constant grooming forces a major shift in how the plant behaves. Unable to shoot upward, the grass adapts by spreading sideways.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a horizontal canopy of tightly woven, super-packed grass, trimmed short to ensure a golf ball rolls smoothly and swiftly enough to interest and challenge golfers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you mow turf more frequently, its natural response is to grow laterally and get more dense. Usually the ball stays on top of the turf, although occasionally, if there is a bit of a thinner area, it might touch the ground,\u201d Gilbert says.<\/p>\n
Tees and fairways are trimmed every three or four days at just under one centimetre (4\/10 of an inch), while the remaining grass area, known as the rough, is Kentucky Bluegrass mowed at between five and 6.3 centimetres (two and 2 1\/2 inches).<\/p>\n
The steep faces of the sand bunkers have their own dedicated botanical resident: fine fescues, which require less grooming.<\/p>\n
The mechanical infrastructure required to maintain this level of precision includes a fleet of around 60 pieces of specialized equipment, including ride-on and push mowers, backpack leaf blowers and string trimmers, all which come under the care of the equipment manager.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n
Turf is regularly fertilized. Staff apply granular pellets or liquid sprays packed with the \u201cbig three\u201d nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Once a year soil samples are sent to a lab for an annual checkup.<\/p>\n The entire operation is far more complicated than one might imagine.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re taking a living thing, mowing it to an exact height and trying to keep it healthy, while also trying to create a good surface for people to play a game on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest thing that surprises people is how complex maintaining turf is,\u201d Gilbert says. \u201cWe\u2019re taking a living thing, mowing it to an exact height and trying to keep it healthy, while also trying to create a good surface for people to play a game on. It\u2019s a pretty significant juggling act.\u201d<\/p>\n And the hardest ball to keep in the air? The golfers themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t mean this disrespectfully,\u201d Gilbert continues with a laugh. \u201cThey\u2019re here to play, of course. They don\u2019t do it purposely but they\u2019re walking on it, taking divots, making ball marks. Every time someone plays golf they damage the course.<\/p>\n \u201cMaking sure we can recover from that kind of activity is one of our biggest challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n The other wild card Gilbert has to deal with is our climate.<\/p>\n Intensely hot days require moisture management. To conserve water, and keep out of the way of paying members, Gilbert runs a computerized irrigation system that kicks in after sunset when less water will be lost to evaporation.<\/p>\n But when the skies open and deliver swathes of rain, as they have done recently, then the city\u2019s unique geography becomes a liability \u2014 Winnipeg\u2019s ground is composed of heavy clay, which doesn\u2019t drain as well as Gilbert would like.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be careful with both mower and staff traffic, and golfer traffic when its really wet. You\u2019re trying to route people around the golf course in a way that it doesn\u2019t wear it out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n As the season begins to wind down in October, Gilbert and his team prep the turf for hibernation. Cutting heights are raised to give the grass a break, late-season nutrition is applied and, to increase insulation, a layer of sand is laid on vulnerable areas before being covered with a tarp.<\/p>\n Once winter sets in, Gilbert relies on a paradox: he needs the freezing cold to be accompanied by a heavy blanket of snow. Snow, counterintuitively, is a golf-course superintendent\u2019s best friend.<\/p>\n \u201cSnow is a pretty incredible insulator. If you get a foot of snow, temperatures can stay close to zero around the turf surface. That\u2019s fine for the grass,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n However, while he can do everything right to set the golf course up to winter well, Mother Nature is still in charge.<\/p>\n \u201cThe worst-case scenario is a mid-winter melt followed by a sudden freeze.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe worst-case scenario is a mid-winter melt followed by a sudden freeze. If the temperature rises unexpectedly in February then plummets back into a hard freeze, that can be troublesome,\u201d Gilbert says.<\/p>\n This total mastery over nature at his workplace is somewhat at odds with Gilbert\u2019s own suburban yard, he admits.<\/p>\n \u201cYou definitely wouldn\u2019t be able to judge my profession by my own lawn, I can tell you that. My wife and I take care of it together. It\u2019s a team effort,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Ruth Bonneville \/ Free Press<\/p>\n
The Calgary native has been in the industry for 27 seasons, 14 of those as superintendent. His is a demanding career; early starts mean 9:30 p.m. bedtimes. He is constantly on the move, logging 15,000 steps a day when he\u2019s using a cart and 25,000 when he decides he would rather walk the course.<\/p>\n The routine is gruelling and requires sacrifice. Six days a week, six months a year Gilbert has to strike the right work-life balance.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can certainly be challenging to balance everything. Sometimes I miss some weekend trips or other events, but I try very hard to make it to as much as possible,\u201d he says, pointing out that in winter he can take some time off the job.<\/p>\n \u201cYou definitely wouldn\u2019t be able to judge my profession by my own lawn, I can tell you that.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s driven by a genuine passion for what he does. No two days are the same.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s constantly changing, it\u2019s very dynamic. That\u2019s what keeps you on your toes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI love this job; I don\u2019t know too many guys in the industry who don\u2019t. We\u2019re a small, tight-knit community and I think we\u2019re all a little bit infatuated with it. You almost have to be to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n winnipegfreepress.com\/avkitching<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t AV Kitching AV Kitching is an arts and life writer at the Free Press. She has been a journalist for more than two decades and has worked across three continents writing about people, travel, food, and fashion. Read more about AV<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting AV produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n \t\t
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\nGilbert and his senior team gather for their daily huddle at 4:45 a.m. to go through the day\u2019s schedule.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\nGrass type is selected based on key criteria, including the ability to withstand the local climate, and more than one variety is usually planted across the course.
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\nGilbert has been in the industry for 27 golf seasons; it’s a demanding career, and he loves it.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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