A Wet Start to Winter

Mother Nature delivered a wet blow to the region dumping over 10 inches of rain since winter began just a month ago. Rain totals for the season are over 20 inches (since October 2016) and the drought has been declared over in the Bay Area. If you've been out on the golf course in the last few weeks, you may have been able to come to that conclusion yourself!

All things considered the course handled the storms well. Sure the bunkers were blown out and large amounts of debris were scattered about but, all in all, no big deal. No trees down, no major issues. Once the storms let up we were out cleaning the course and making repairs to bunkers and surprisingly, the course remained quite playable throughout.

Golf Carts have been restricted for many days this winter. We simply cannot allow carts on to the course when it's this wet. Over the holiday weekend, we went five days without rain and by the 5th day, we were able to lift cart restrictions. Pretty amazing that after all that rain it took just five days to dry out enough to safely allow golf carts. Then, it rained again...
We did get out to mow the entire course yesterday. Numerous wet areas were skipped but, for the most part, we mowed the entire course for the first time in weeks. Again, pretty amazing considering just a few years ago, the course would have been closed for weeks following a similar winter pattern. This says a lot about the commitment the Club and the Membership has made to supporting the golf course over the years. Cultural practices like aeration and sand topdressing are disruptive during the process but pay off greatly in over-all course conditions year around. A big Thank You goes out to the Membership for their support of the Turf Department! Now lets get to Tahoe. I hear the snow is amazing!!