About Me

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Los Gatos, California, United States
Kevin is currently the certified superintendent at La Rinconada Country Club. Kevin was the Director of Maintenance at Lahontan Golf Club for over 14 years. Some of the responsibilities over the expanse of his career include the daily upkeep of multiple golf courses, natural resources, environmental compliance, and roads and streets. The wide ranging expertise has come from a combination of education and experiences. Degrees in Meteorology (1987 University of Nebraska/Lincoln), and Horticulture (1992 Colorado State), complete the formal side of this important combination of qualifications. A lifetime of experience around golf courses, and the game of golf was provided by Kevin's father.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

What is the white stuff in the fairway? ?

You may have noticed a white material in the fairways recently. That  material is gypsum that aids water penetration into the soil. The white color helps identitiefy areas  for the water crew so they can find them easily and ensures we are watering in the right places and conserving water.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Fall Maintenance September 2nd

The annual fall maintenance is upon us and there are going to be some adjustments from years past because of the unusual weather we have experienced this year.


Aerification practices will be the same. On the greens cores .50 inch in diameter and 2 inch spacing will be pulled and then filled with sand, then we do it again with .25 inch diameter cores on that same 2 inch spacing. That is a lot of holes but it results in surfaces that drain better and are firmer and smoother playing. The hard work that it takes to do this job is worth the results. The easiest thing to do is to not do aerification but you will pay the price later.

Greens aerification

.25 inch aerification holes

Now for the different aspect of this year. Seed is usually put down prior to the sand topdress on fairways and roughs. During fall maintenance this year seed will be added to landing areas and high traffic areas but not to all areas as in the past. This year when we reduced the irrigation on the course many areas of turf were lost. Not all these areas will be regrown. Of the areas that will be regrown, some will be established to different grass species suitable to drought conditions. In order to continue to conserve resources, irrigation water will not be used to grow this seed and instead, we will wait for our rainy season and hope that it shows up this year.

Irrigation reduction area where seeding will be delayed
So just a little different strategy to add seed the week of fall maintenance only where we need it in landing zones and high traffic areas and then wait on the other areas until the rainy season.

Kevin

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Rain in August ? What ??

What is going on with this rain? 


We should not be too surprised with all the crazy weather that has happened over the world in the last few years, but rain in the San Jose California area in August is unheard of, and it has happened a couple of times in the last few weeks.

Radar August 6th 2014 showing rain cells moving south through Northern California South Bay 


A lot of this moisture is coming from low pressure systems that are bringing moist air up from as far south as Mexico as part of the monsoonal flow. If you spend any time in the south west you know about those rain events, but for it to reach as far north as Northern California takes a very strong persistent flow.




Satellite loop August 6th 2014 showing monsoonal moisture in Mexico moving north through Arizona and then east across Northern Nevada to reach coastal California





Saturday, August 2, 2014

Some Days

Most days I enjoy the birds on the golf course. Their singing and being around the ponds and the golf course are pleasant, however this morning for some reason only the 13 screen was damaged by birds foraging for insects.