Lawn bowling greens reinvigorated

By Sean Rooney on July 19, 2018.

srooney@medicinehatnews.com @MHNRooney

It was a lawn gone wrong.

Ever since the Medicine Hat Lawn Bowling Club got its surfaces redone some nine years ago, the quality of the greens gradually went downhill.

It got so bad that club members were forced to stop using the eight lanes on the surface closest to the clubhouse this summer. The annual tournament — with players coming from across the province — was in jeopardy.

“Part of it was the long winter we had, and we found out we were doing some things that weren’t totally the way they should’ve been done,” said secretary Curt Moll. “I thought I would have to phone and cancel (the tournament).”

Moll had heard Connaught Golf Club superintendent Dustin Zdan knew a thing or two about greens. So he called him up. Zdan, who achieved a national accreditation this year, was all too happy to help.

Less than two months later and with the tournament set to kick off Saturday, Zdan helped cut the yellow ribbon to let a couple dozen eager players back on to the gloriously-manicured surface.

“June 10 was the day we aerated it, overseeded it, top-dressed it,” said Zdan, who noted the bent-grass lawn bowling surface is pretty much exactly like a golf green, only at 15,000 square feet a whole lot bigger. “I think in about seven days seedlings were coming up.

“The easiest thing is they don’t have any golfers running across it.”

Club greenskeeper Jim Reid learned a lot from Zdan and also got some new equipment to use to keep the surface in pristine shape. He took diligent notes on everything from fertilizer (every couple weeks) to mowing and rolling properly.

“It’s fine-tuning it, and patience,” said Reid. “It’s 150 per cent what it was before.”

Players eager to get in some throws prior to the two-day, 15-team triples tournament this weekend were impressed with the early balls they rolled. Zdan wasn’t sure if it’d be too fast or too slow for their liking, noting those sorts of things can be tweaked.

“It takes talent and it takes know-how,” said Wes Bresee, among the players who gathered for the ceremonial ribbon cutting. “It’s excellent, it’s such a dream.”

Tournament play starts at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday. It’s not a high-level event, geared towards getting more competitors involved.

Connaught donated equipment including a couple mowers and fertilizer to the club. The clubhouse itself, which Moll said dates back to World War II, will also be replaced later this year by the city.

“They just needed a little bit of help,” said Zdan. “It was fun.”

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