Got a fun email from Keith Lyall, superintendent at Sun Peaks Resort in Sun Peaks, British Columbia, today. Keith was looking at a back issue of GCM, where he saw a story about snow removal. He sent me a nice little note with a few photos attached of what they do at Sun Peaks. Finding the whole thing interesting, I asked Keith to send more photos and a short note, which he was happy to oblige. Now, I'm sharing all of this with the GCM blog!
I'll let Keith take it away:
I came to this course as an assistant in the spring of 2004, I was very shocked to see the conditions of the greens. Almost their entire surfaces were covered in snow mold scars. At that time there was only nine holes. In previous years they had tried to remove snow from the greens but did not have much success in keeping molds in check.
Guaranteed we have snow sticking on the ground by Halloween, so our third winter prep fungicide application is the week before (hopefully). The 90 day effectiveness of fungicides ends in February, and that’s when the clearing begins.
We will generally use a snow cat to get the bulk of snow off (white death is what I call it) some of the greens can’t be accessed by a cat so we use a skid-steer on tracks with a snow blower attachment. Once the bulk is gone, about four feet, we immediately use walk-behind blowers to get the remaining snow off. We will then reapply fungicides and cover with tarps until the weather warms 
and they start to grow. Usually we are cutting by early April. It is quite a site to be skiing and look in the valley and see the vivid greens in all that snow. This process has allowed the course to open with healthy greens one month after the ski hill closes.
Also, to keep my assistant and one employee working year-round we manage an outdoor skating rink in the winter months.
This is bad times for any golfers like me :( we all just have to wait... or we could play mini golf games indoors...
Posted by: Dennis | January 01, 2009 at 10:03 AM