Greens Reconstruction

While all of the collars and surrounds, tees, fairways, and roughs were established early on with kikuyugrass, the greens were recently reconstructed and bentgrass was used in place of the traditional bermudagrass. Superintendent Kevin Quinn oversaw the reconstruction of the greens in the early 1990s before departing to become Director of Golf at Leopard Creek. The first nine greens were constructed with silica sand selected to meet USGA specifications. The second nine included shredded pine bark with the sand to improve water and nutrient retention. Instead of a gravel blanket beneath the 20-cm-deep root zone mix, a cinder base, using readily available cinders from the adjacent AECI chemical factory, was installed in its place (creating what became known as "compromise" greens). This was underlain with perforated PVC pipe organized in a herringbone design with lines spaced 4 m apart . The greens were initially seeded with Pennlinks creeping bentgrass; however, given the heavy traffic to which the greens were subjected, subsequent overseeding was done with the more-durable Penncross cultivar.