Kokanee Open and Still Open

The Men's Open was a huge success. The 100 or so golfers entered experienced a bonus weather day on Saturday: 25 degrees and sunny and then endured a moderately wet day on Sunday but by the mid afternoon the sun was shining and all were in good spirits. I entered the tournament this year and had the privilege and fun and of playing with my in-laws who came from Calgary. My brother in law was actually leading the tournament after nine holes on Sunday but couldn't keep it going against the eventual winner Dan Brown of Kelowna who shot a cool -1 for two days.

My driver let me down on Sunday and I made several poor putts from close in to shoot a 78 on Sunday which tempered my 73 the day before which was a result of 13 straight pars from 1-13 and some poor decisions which led to bogies on easy holes. In my honest and humble opinion my crew did an outstanding job getting the course into shape after several weeks of rain and cool weather. The weekend crew that worked split shifts in the morning and afternoon created some of the fastest greens we've ever seen around here -about 10.5 on the stimpmeter. Saturday morning there was almost a disaster when a large bull elk walked across the fifth green and left huge depressions on the putting surface. It took the careful hand of two people about and hour to make the damage almost invisible and unnoticeable. I especially want to thank my assistant Colin for putting in long hours setting up mowers and making sure everything went smoothly.

During the round on Saturday the 13th hole was invaded by two Grizzly bear cubs - about 2 years old and 250 pounds each - which delayed a few tee shots and made several people nervous. The bears hung around all afternoon and by the time prime rib was served at 5:00 pm they were still seen in the fairway near the clubhouse which created a bit of a freak show with everyone trying to get a look or take a picture from a distance. It's rare for Grizzly bears to come so close to people out in the open and it was a little dangerous to have them so close to the parking lot late at night but luckily nobody got too close.

For the rest of the season we will be readying the course for winter. This week we aerate the tees and starting next week we will aerate the greens and topdress them. A lot of people cringe when they see and aerator on a golf green and they think that this means the greens will be ruined, but the technology is available today to make the impact on the putting surfaces minimal. We plan to aerate with small tines and utilize close spacing and to topdress immediately following the aeration so that there will be minimal disruption. The impact on ball roll will be barely noticeable.