Longtime Osoyoos Golf Course superintendent Mike Harrison gave an impressive presentation recently to the Rotary Club of Osoyoos talking about the many challenges he and his large crew face in keeping all 36 holes at the local golf club in great shape. Being a course superintendent for a course that has the hottest weather in the country and uses treated effluent to water the course is one of his greatest challenges, Harrison told Rotarians. (Keith Lacey photo)
There are many challenges to keeping a golf course in great shape when it’s located in the hottest climate in Canada and has to rely on treated effluent as its water source, but it’s nothing Mike Harrison can’t handle.
Harrison has been the man responsible for making the Osoyoos Golf Club into one of the few 36-hole layouts in British Columbia.
During a recent presentation to the Rotary Club of Osoyoos, Harrison talked about the challenges of keeping the Osoyoos Golf Club in great shape, how it takes a large crew of dedicated staff to manage a 36-hole layout and how hot weather and treated effluent make his job a challenge each and every day.
“I love my job … but it has its challenges,” said Harrison, who was hired as an assistant course superintendent way back in 1989 and has been the Osoyoos Golf Club’s superintendent since 1991.
The Osoyoos Golf Club was built by a large group of founding members back in 1972 and they basically built the original nine holes with tractors, shovels and a lot of sweat equity, said Harrison.
In 1976, the founding members teamed up with the Town of Osoyoos and worked out a deal that the town would build several large effluent holding ponds on golf course property. In exchange, the golf course would have access to an endless supply of treated effluent to water the course, said Harrison.
The golf course started using treated effluent to water the course once the ponds were built in 1980 and have been using them ever since, he said.
Having an endless supply of water is absolutely necessary when you consider the extreme warm weather that blankets Osoyoos for five or six months of the year, but it’s also very challenging as a golf course superintendent because treated effluent is filled with a heavy concentration of salt, said Harrison.
“It’s a mixed bag for me,” he said. “There are some good things and some bad things with having to use effluent as your water source.”
Usually by September, so much salty effluent has been used on the course that the grass and greens “start to go south,” he said.
The effluent, fortunately, doesn’t cause any damage to the fairways and greens, but the heavy salt component makes him and his crew have to do things other golf course managers don’t have to do, said Harrison.
“To be honest, we’re still learning how to handle it (effluent),” he said. “You have to learn how to deal with it.”
When it gets really hot in July and August, one solution that has proven successful is to “flood the greens and turn them into small lakes” once every couple of weeks.
Because of the hot weather and great drainage, the greens stay in great shape using this technique, he said.
The Desert Gold 18-hole course opened for business in early February and he expects the Parks Meadow course will open either this week or next week, said Harrison.
“We had a perfect winter,” he said. “The course didn’t freeze at all and that means the greens and grass look brilliant green so early in the season.”
A small crew of about 10 staff are hired early in the season to manage all 36 holes and a larger crew of 20 to 24 workers is hired by June and remain until the end of September, although a few have to leave to go back to school, he said.
Harrison and two senior members of his crew are employed year-round.
Because of competition from Fairview Mountain and the Nk’ Mip Desert Golf Course in Oliver, Harrison said it’s his job to make sure Osoyoos Golf Club is always in great shape so visiting golfers and members can have a “memorable golf experience every time they’re on the course.”
“Both Nk’ Mip and Fairview are great golf courses, so we have to carve our own little niche,” he said. “We decided we had to have incredible greens to compete so we try and have our greens as smooth and consistent as possible every single day.”
Being able to offer “two distinctive golf experiences” with the links-style Desert Golf course and more traditional tree-lined Parks Meadow course has been a great selling point for golfers coming to Osoyoos, he said.
“As long as golfers have a good experience, they will come back and tell others about it,” he said. “But if the greens aren’t good or consistent, the average golfer isn’t going to be happy.”
The members at Osoyoos Golf Club have shown great support for the job done by he and his crew and that’s a big reason he loves what he does so much, said Harrison.
“I love what I do,” he reiterated.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
