May Summary

Have you missed me?  I have been busy as always, and there have been lots of things to write about....... but I have been busy doing those things rather than writing, and I will leave it at that. So lets catch up.

The drought and our water strategy has kept the main playing surfaces in good shape while the cut backs on the periphery of the course have provided water conservation. As summer progresses and the temperatures get higher the conservation will become more evident as areas go off color. I am going to be testing different grass varieties for these edge of course areas. I am looking for good color with reduced water and fertilizer, along with reduced growth in the long term. Stay tuned for more on this as these test plots get established. The goal is to reduce our water use by 20% from 2013, and to identify areas for long term conservation after the drought has ended. The criteria for evaluating these areas is outlined in the blog posting labeled "Drought".

Turf reduction along the right hand side of the first hole.

Maggiora working on cleaning out our well at the end of the practice area

In the category of course enhancements / projects there has been progress made in the last month although a lot of that progress has taken place in strategy and planning. In my last posting I updated the Vasona Canal filling which is not complete for now. The next step is to get the plan from Bill Love and evaluate what he has planned there. It will take a while to solidify that plan, and then the determination of when to do the work would take place. This process will take months, and there has been good progress thus far. In the mean time I will continue to do projects like the clearing out the right side of the 10th hole as time, man power and budget allow. Going into the heat of summer and our tournament season takes a lot of our resources, so I don't expect to do many more projects until fall.

10th hole before brush removal

10th hole after brush removal

Overall course health and playability have been very good. There are water and soil challenges we are dealing with that I will not go into detail about, but the strategies that are being employed are producing results and that is displayed in the current course conditions. In my next posting I will get into how we produce those tournament conditions.


Kevin