The Taming of the Fescue

One of the things that makes Claremont so special is the bunkering.  The classic style, the way the bunkers just fit where they are and look as if they'd been there forever really gives us the sense of working on a 100 acre art piece.  One that is continually evolving, growing and being beaten up by golf carts, animals, tractors and the like.  This place just has it.

A major feature of the bunkering here at Claremont is the Fine Fescue "eye brows."  Fine Fescue is a grass found growing native in California and other parts of the world and is truly a poverty grass, meaning it does best with little to no water and fertilizer and infrequent mowing.  Coming out of winter, the fescue is long, lush and hard on the golfer.

 So, today we tamed the fescue around all the bunkers on the golf course.  Ten team members armed with weed eaters, rakes and blowers.  The guys bounce their weed eaters against the fescue to beat it up and give it that natural, rustic look that I think is so cool.  The end result is what I like to call Weed eater Art.  Plus, now you may find your ball!

Last fall, our consulting agronomist and friend Dave Wilber made a visit just as we had finished the new bunkers on 1 & 18.  Below is a link to his blog that is posted on Turfnet.com where he discusses that visit.  Dave is brilliant, a great writer and has some very nice things to say about Claremont.  Enjoy, and we'll see you on the course.

http://www.turfnet.com/wilber/index.php/2010/10/15/fescue-be-not-jungle-man/