A Good Start

The last few weeks have brought quite a change on the golf course. The completion of the fairway and tee aeration and sanding followed by rain, wind and abnormally warm temps have kept the staff in the Turf Department busy to say the least. See below for a picture tour of the last few weeks.

Fairway sanding on Hole #2

Hydro seeded fescue on bunkers Hole #18. Many Fescue areas around bunkers and in out-of-play areas were hydro seeded in the last few weeks. These areas have begun to germinate with the recent rain and will establish over the winter.

Buzz relaxing on a dormant section of Bermuda grass. The Bermuda has begun to go dormant throughout the course and has contributed greatly to the "off-color" look of the course. This is normal for this time of year.

The creek flowing nicely following a much needed 1.4 inches of rain. The course took the first good rains of the season nicely and the staff was out mowing all greens, tees and fairways the day after.

The putting green passed it's first winter test with flying colors. While there was a bit of standing water on the surface (as there was on many greens throughout the course) during the downpour, once the rains let up, the water dissipated rapidly and we were out mowing the next morning. The green continues to be firm under foot and is draining nicely.

We lost a few trees this week. Following the soaking rains Tuesday and Wednesday the Cork Oak at the clubhouse came down.

The strong winds that blew in Thursday night brought down an Acacia tree along the fence line at Hole #16. We were luck to have no damage to the fencing or netting along 16.

The wind storm that blew through had sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts over 40 mph. This resulted in a golf course littered with leaf debris and small limbs down throughout. The staff worked hard Friday just to clear greens, tees and Fairways and by Sunday, we were still finishing the clean up and raking of all bunkers.

Over the next week, we will attempt to resume normal mowing of the course but will also focus on the continuing clean up of all rough and out-of-play areas. The amount of debris that came out of these trees was amazing and will take weeks to finish the clean up.

A wild few weeks for sure... no down time for staff in the Turf Department! If you are out this week, please take a minute to stop and thank the someone working on the course as they've all had a long year.

Thanks and we'll see you on the course!

Dear Mom... Please Send Rain

I came across this in the SF Chronicle today... click on the link below for an article on this years weather, or lack thereof.

I know it's been a dry season but this really puts things into perspective. Driest Year On Record!


http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/California-on-course-for-driest-year-on-record-4971192.php

Shorter Days and Cooler Nights

The seasons are a changing and it's beginning to feel like winter out there. Let's just hope that winter this year includes rain!

  With the shorter days and cooler nights comes the need to water less and this is a good thing. The quarry pond is low due to the light rains we've received for the last 10 months and at this point we are in water conservation mode. This will make for some firm and fast conditions and a few more brown areas than a normal year. Normal rainfall from January to October is 16.5 inches. This year we are at just 3.5 inches for that same time span.

 The cooler temperatures we've had forces the warm season grasses (Bermuda & kikuyu) into dormancy turning isolated areas from green to brown. This is typical for the season and is nothing to be worried about. This is also the time of year when we cut and mow all fescue and native areas to prepare for winter and over seeding which makes for even more off color grass.

The fall aeration of the course is in full swing and we hope to complete the process by the end of the week. This includes the aeration, sanding, seeding and fertilization of all tee, approach and fairway areas. A slide on the benefits of aeration can be seen below....

All things considered, we are very happy with the course this fall and we're looking forward to a very wet winter. I leave you with a great quote from the good Doctor...

"The best golfing grasses vary in color. They may be red, brown, blue, dark green, light green, yellow and at times even white. A golf course that is consisted entirely of one shade of green would be merely ugly." - Alister MacKenzie

Thanks and we'll see you on the course!