The sun came back out to make the second day of our Grand Opening of The Range a truly grand day!

Wilson Yeu was our first KP contest winner and now enjoys a Nike VR wedge in the bag.  Thanks again to Ian Carlson from Nike Golf for being such a big part of our opening festivities with prizes and demos!

Wilson Yeu flanked by Ian Carlson from Nike and Ryan Pepper CPGA with his new Nike VR wedge

Keegan Blunden, one of our junior members, was beat out in a putting contest yesterday but had the luck of the draw when it came to winning a wedge also!  Nester Egido stepped up to the plate in the putting contest to drain all three putts and win a Hybrid from Nike! 

Ro Davies handing Keegan Blunden, one of our junior pass holders his new Nike VR wedge

Nestor Egido being lifted by Dan Axford CPGA and Ro Davies

Brother Twang rocked the tee line all afternoon and when it came to their luck of the draw, Luci McEachern, a loyal student of our CPGA Pros, was drawn to win a new Nike VR Driver!   The new Nike drivers were flying out the door as Andy McNaughton, one of our passholders, hit the cart and was stoked to have the dream club in the bag! 

Brother Twang entertaining the huge crowd at The Range

Luci McEachern, the winner of a new Nike VR driver with Ryan Pepper CPGA

Andy Mcnaughton on the left with Daniel Ryan, the Winner of the hugely popular "Hit the Cart" contest

In our next putting contest, Willie Lewis Sr. was the victor in a three person playoff winning a new Nike wedge. 

Willie Lewis Sr. lining up a tough putt with caddie Ro Davies

 The hit the cart contest was definitely a popular one, and junior member Casey Klimock dropped one right in the box for the win!

Hit the cart winner Casey Klimock fighting over his new Nike VR hybrid with Dan Axford CPGA

Our next KP winner was Mike Turcotte who prevailed in the prevailing winds and is also enjoying a new Hybrid from Nike! 

Mike Turcotte, KP winner testing his accuracy with his new Nike VR hybrid

If you weren’t one of the on-site draw prize winners, don’t fret!  We are still going to give away more amazing Nike clubs and a 10 game pass from everyone that entered to win over the course of the weekend.  Thank you to everyone that came out to enjoy the new Range!

High noon on Saturday, July 31, 2010 saw the ceremonial first swing and official opening of the Range! The sun was shining, the hot dogs grilling, and Ian Carlson from Nike Golf was on site with all the latest Nike gear (and will be back again tomorrow). Our Pros on hand for free tips and good deals for the future! 

Nike Golf had kindly supplied 18 new Victory Red drivers, rescue clubs, and wedges. No time was wasted starting to give them away to our guests in attendance. Everyone on the line at noon took part in a KP contest that saw Darryl Palmer stick it to 10 feet for the first rescue club now part of his bag. 

Ro Davies handing Darryl Palmer his brand new Nike VR Hybrid

CPGA Duncan Savage took a break from giving free lessons to run the first putting contest which saw Cameron Pascoe winning a new Nike wedge. 

Duncan Savage CPGA and Ian Carlson presenting Cameron Pascoe with his new Nike VR wedge

Then we opened fire on Shimmy in the picker cart, and CPGA Ryan Pepper’s student Chris “Tin Tin” Schindele was the first to hit the cart and won a new Victory Red Nike driver.  Chris has also taken part in Nike Junior camps in previous years, so it looks like it was a good investment! 

Ryan Pepper CPGA, Paul Shimizu, Tin Tin Schindele and Ian Carlson from Nike

We had a lucky draw prize (everyone coming to the opening Saturday and Sunday has a chance to win great prizes) and Bob Beatty took home a new wedge.  Hugh Walker, Whistler Golf Club loyal supporter won himself a rescue club in another KP contest with a beautiful shot.  

Ian Carlson and Ryan Pepper knighting Hugh Walker and Bob Beatty with their new clubs

Close to 40 people took part in our second putting contest and three guests battled it out for 3 playoff rounds until Naomi Ford, who has been learning to play golf in the Whistler Golf Club’s women’s only clinics was the ultimate winner of a new Nike driver – her first golf club to start her down a lifetime of fun times on the links! 

Ian Carlson with Naomi Ford and her new Nike VR driver

Then at 4:30 the skies turned black and the lightning began to strike, and we all took cover from the biblical rains and hail storm! 

We’ll be back again tomorrow from 12-6 to have a bunch more fun.  Come and join us!

Happy Birthday Canada!
What a great parade this year. About 50 local businesses and groups participated in this year’s parade. Of course the Whistler Golf Club was part of it and what a success it was. The whole route of the parade was packed with spectators.

Check out Ro Davies, our Sales Manager in his best lady bug impersonation.

As always, hard at work busy bees.

With some of our Canadian Olympians and Paralympians athletes. From left to right, Mike Janyk, Ashley McIvor, Morgan Perrin, Maelle Ricker, Matt Hallat, Lindsay Debou, Julia Murray, Rob Fagan , Sam Daniels, Justin Lamoureux, Davey Barr.

What a great day for the Squamish Nation Golf Tournament. Great fun was had by all and we even saw some good golf! The players were welcomed with a great buffet breakfast, box lunches delivered to the carts on course and lots of on course entertainment.

Whistler is a great place to host your charity event, fundraiser or client appreciation event. Give Ro a call at 604-938-5886 for more information. Click here to view our Group Outings Packages and as always we have access to the best accomodation rates in Whistler.

Well it was a big couple of days for our Maintenance crew as they pulled off their Spring greens maintenance without a hitch! The weather was dodgy but they got creative and managed to get all our green maintenance done. Here’s how it went:

First Andy aerated the greens with small tynes. These tynes are very small but will relieve compaction and improve long term health

Next time to pick up the cores. Nice work boys!

Next Super Dave hit the greens with the verticutter. Verticutting removes thatch and takes out the high spots on the greens to provide a smoother roll. Dave did this in two directions which takes a LONG time.

Next the greens were topdressed lightly with sand to fill in the aeration holes and smooth out the putting surface. First Wayne fills up the top dresser with sand:

Then Mike uses the spreader to, you guessed it, spread sand!

From their the sand gets dragged matted into the holes:

Next its time to get some grass growing. Chris overseeded all the thin areas of the greens with bent grass:

Lastly time for a little dinner. Fertilizer is then applied to the greens:

Time to cut a hole in the greens and get ready for regular cutting:

The final cut and away we go! Nice work team. All that in 8 hours.

The Whistler Golf Club just completed its major fairway aeration project prior to opening. Aeration is critical to the overall health of all turf. Rather than letting a Golf Pro explain why I’ll steal a quote from Golf Industry News.

“Few operations show greater or more varied benefits than aeration, though why we use this term when the introduction of air into soil is only one benefit from a list as long as your arm. This list includes relieving compaction; restructuring deflocculated soils; improving drainage; break down thatch by oxidation; correcting stagnation; building up a healthy aerobic soil micro-life; encouraging deeper rooting grasses and thus drought resistance; curing dry patch; helping the absorption of top dressings without layering; and increasing turf resilience.

Few if any of these benefits are known to the average golfer. Sensible management practice avoids disturbing course presentation before major events on the golfing calendar but there is inevitably a clash between optimum soil conditions for aeration and the golfers enjoyment of the course. I will always cherish the exchange between an irate golfer and the head greenkeeper on a course I was visiting, who demanded “Can’t you leave the (adjective) greens alone for five minutes” to which his reply was “Certainly Sir, if you stop playing on them”.

So here was the process.

Step 1. Top dress the fairways. Giant sand spreaders are used to cast the sand evenly over the fairways where later it will be dragged into the holes left by the aerating.

>Step 2. Aerate the fairways. Tractor aerators aerate the entire fairway and in play rough removing 1/2″ cores of thatchy turf.

Step 3: The Dragger hits the fairways and drags the topdressing sand into the cored holes in the fairways.

Step 4- The Mulcher eats the cores and spits them out removing the soil and leaving the tufts of grass.

Step 5 The Blower hits the fairways to remove the tufts of grass.

Over the next week the fairways will continue to get dragged to get the sand into the profile and the staff will continue raking cores. In three weeks or so the fairways will be in great shape with much healthier turf.

Nice work team.

AK

At 2200 feet the Whistler Golf Club gets some serious snow during the winter. I often get asked “How do you get it in such good shape so fast!” Mother nature definitely helps but a lot of work goes in. Here’s what a typical Spring season entails:

During the winter our Superintendent monitors the greens for ice build up. Ice kills turf full stop. If we get our normal snow coverage -3-4 feet- then ice is a non factor. The snow insulates the turf. Fungicide applied in the Fall prevents snow mold and general the greens are good to go. But if you don’t get enough snow, and you get freezing and thawing in the valley- well you get:

The only way to remove it is by hand. Not fun. Sometimes you get it in time, sometimes you don’t. If we have green damage the following steps are done to repair the greens:

• Aerate damaged sections
• verticut entire green
• overseed damaged areas
• fertilize green
• put tarps on greens to increase soil temperature and stimulate growth
• Watch for germination of grass and begin hand cutting

With a little good weather the greens are ready to go in no time.

In a normal snow year we start snowblowing greens late February. That’s all it takes. Clear the snow and watch it green up. When the turf starts growing we start cutting- usually early April.

Fairways are first blown free of sticks, debris, dog poop etc to prepare for cutting. Then the fairways are verticut to remove snow mold. From there regular cutting can begin. When soil temperatures allows fertilization occurs and away we go.

Bunkers are pretty much trashed by the Spring. Our bunker crew will turnover all the sand, load in some new sand and prepare the bunkers at playing depths. Edges are groomed for aesthetics and rakes placed in position.

Tees, green surrounds and rough all get the same treatment as the fairways. Heights for all are lowered gradually so as not to stress out the turf.

Our two full time gardeners hit all the flower beds hard in the spring. Bulbs were planted in the Fall so colour hits the beds early May. The Clubhouse drive is beautified and all roads and paths are worked on to remove gravel from the winter.

Next the irrigation system is charged. Our irrigation technician tests every head to ensure no breaks occurred over the winter. Turf cut at low heights can check out quick when it gets hot so its important all heads are functioning properly. All drains are checked to ensure water drains properly off the course. Any breaks are repaired quickly so as not to inflict any turf damage.

Lastly all  on course furniture and equipment is placed on course for the guests. After opening the crew focuses on improving turf and playing conditions early. From snow to golfing in less than a month, our crew does a great job in getting the course ready for play. A lot of work goes into getting golf course ready in the Spring in a ski resort! Happy golfing. Click here to see photos of our 2010 Spring preparation.

AK

If you love to Mountain Bike it doesn’t get any better than Whistler. One of the perks of living here is being able to particpate in the weekly “Twoonie race” $2 gets you a great course set up, dinner and beer. The Whistler Golf Club had the privilege of hosting the after party last week. 280 riders descended on the first tee- see parking below!

Two live bands entertained while the riders talked of there trails and tribulations on course.

Our patio is a great spot to host ANY kind of event.

RIDE ON!

AK