FROST

With winter now upon us and significantly cooler weather, we now have to deal with the issues of frost on the golf course. Frost is formed with some condensation, or dew, on the leaf blade and temperatures near or below freezing point (essentially 38 degrees air temp and below). The factors that contribute to frost are wind, humidity, etc. This hardens or freezes the cell structure of the plant, which then are easily crushed by traffic from golf cars and even footprints. The plant then can no longer function properly. The damage can not usually be seen until 48-72 hours after initial contact. Depending on growing conditions, it could take up to even 3 weeks for the plant to recover. If golf car and foot traffic is repeated in areas where there is frost, it will in fact create total plant loss. Our greens were stimped at 8:00 AM this morning at 11.6 feet. Lastly, on an interesting note, we have only had to irrigate 1 time in the last 29 days.

New Assistant

I would like to welcome my new assistant Nick Reyes. He started a few days ago and is settling into the position. He came from Pelican Hill Resort and has grown up in the inland empire area his whole life. I look forward to sharing my knowledge and experience with him as this is his first assistants roll. He not only has a good outlook on his turf knowledge but understands the game of golf as well. Also a good player to add to that. Lastly our greens were rolling 11.4 feet at 7 a.m. this morning.

Rain is on its way!

Rain is to be expected starting tomorrow a.m. and lasting thru the day. With the anticipation of that we are getting all the drains cleaned out. Hole #12 will continue to be played as a par 3 until further notice. We got lucky with the rain last week because even though we totaled 1.5" it was a steady consistent rain. Not a heavy one like this one is projected to be. It also look like possibly more rain next Tuesday and Wednesday. With that I have not had to use any irrigation for the past 13 days and should not have to use any water in the near future. After the rainfall last week the greens had slowed down to 10.2 feet. I have this week already double mowed twice, rolled twice, and verticut this morning. Green were rolling 10.8 feet at 7 a.m. this morning. Lastly check out the maintenance building as we have decorated inside and out for the first time.

End of the month updates, bad lies?

We are now into the "non growing season" of our warm season turf grasses. With that there is more focus on detail and projects. This will continue thru February. This will be the last posting of our monthly updates until the weather warms up. For November we rolled 6 times, verticut 2 times, applied a growth regulator 2 times, and top dress 1 time. My goal is to keep as much turf and color in our fairways for as long as possible. I cant stress this enough but please respect all traffic control signs, stakes, etc. If you drive down the middle of #2 fairway in the shade areas it is almost bare turf. The stakes were moved down the middle to show all players what can and will happen if we do not rope off these areas of shade. Unfortunately holes 1,2,10 struggle with this the most.

Thanksgiving weekend

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. As you all know black Friday will be the busiest golfing day all year. Great weather and good conditions should give you a fun day on the course. Greens were stimped this morning rolling 11.7 feet. Lastly our trees for the golf course were selected this past Tuesday and will be delivered early part of next week. The plan is to plant a few a day and should finish before Christmas. Have a great weekend!

green speeds

I just stimped greens this morning rolling at 11.5 feet!

hole locations, speedy

Our greens are shrinking! What I mean is that the greens have been picking up speed and staying that way throughout the day. So our hole locations will be in a flatter area on the green. The greens will still be a challenge even where the hole location is. So as you play throughout the winter you will notice no more back positions on holes 14,15. Even hole locations that are OK in the fall become extremely difficult in the winter to either stop the ball or even the ball rolling back to you. Me being a golfer I know that you cannot short side yourself or be above the hole. Because unless you make it expect a difficult up and in, or a tough two putt. I hope your all enjoying the speeds and the trueness of the greens throughout the day! Have fun, and good luck.

Cooling down.......

This past week has cooled down quite significantly and with that there is a big drop on growth potential. In order to have consistent playing conditions on every hole we are being very aggressive on traffic control. We understand that this will cause more walk time from golf car to ball, but we must all abide by this. You should have noticed by now that holes #1,#10 have been completely roped off and as of today holes #2, and #17. The sun has shifted farther to the south and with the shorter days of sunlight it is almost impossible to grow turf that can with stand golf car traffic. When your out there take a look at the shade down the right side of the fairway on #2, and the left side of #10. Lastly our greens were rolling 10.3 feet on Monday at 12 p.m.

planter beds

If you have not noticed already all the planter beds surrounding our cart paths have been cleaned up. Soon we will be planting annuals to provide color and brighten up these areas with a fresh look. Expect cooler temps the remainder of the week, which will slow down growth especially in the fairways. Holes #1,and #10 are cart path only until further notice. Lastly our greens were stimped on Monday at 9 a.m. rolling 10.1 feet

Hello

Dear members, for those who do not know me my name is John Hardin. I am your new Golf Course Superintendent. I have been here since Janruary and was the assistant before just being promoted. I would like to share with you who I am and what I like to do. Im 30 years old and have been in the golf industry for the past 14 years. For the first 6 years I had intrest in being a golf proffesional. For the past 8 years I have pursued the turf maintenence side. I love the fact that I can also play golf where I work. I will make every effort to play with any members that request to do so. My wife Danielle and I have been married for 2 years now and we have a 5 month old boy named Trent. I also have a nine year old boy named Riley. I enjoy watching all sports. Go Packers, Go Angels, Go Lakers! Lastly I am very excited to have this oppurtunity and know that we will continue to give the best results possible on an everyday basis. See you around....

traffic poles

Yes thats right its that time of the year again. As we get into the non growing season there needs to be traffic poles out on the golf course. These are green stakes with white tops that are 3 feet tall. They are on every hole except par 3's. One for the entrance of the hole and one for the exit of the hole. Please use these as guides of where to enter and exit and either side of the pole you cross is no diffrence just as long as there being used will be a big help. We also took on just over a 1/4" inch of rain on Saturday which means more ropes and chains out there. Please watch out for wear areas or muddy areas when you are driving your golf car. Lastly our greens were stimped at 8:00 a.m. rolling 9.8 feet despite the rain we had thats pretty good.

Updates

We will be finally wrapping up all the storm damage clean up by next week. There have been several things to clean up as well as staying on top of our general maintenance and also throw in the overseeding and coring of greens. Also the lake interior has been cleaned up and over time we will have our water color back to crystal clear. It has taken 1+ months to finish, but with well anticipation everything is back to normal and if not in better condition. Greens are not only healthy but firming up. Our greens were stimped at precisely 9:00a.m. this morning rolling 9.8 feet. Fairways are improving with the higher mowing heights in an attempt to get them preped for our cold winter months. Please be aware that soon we will have strategic roping, as well as traffic poles to help with wear and tear from golf car compaction. If you see a wear mark in the turf please refrain from driving over it. Try to drive where there is healthy turf and not damaged turf as this will allow the weak turf to recover.

tees and collars

We had our first mow of tees after the overseed. They are a little high right now but by mid week will have them to our liking for the rest of the fall/winter. You will notice that they are uniform and the overseeding went great. Our collars will be mowed on Monday which that will complete our overseeding process. Also tree removal should be complete by the middle of next week, as well as the clean up of our lake interior. Thank you as always for you patience and understanding of our overseeding process. Greens were stimped at precisley 8:00a.m. rolling 9.9 feet. There starting to firm up and speed up thanks to the cooler temps.

Golf course update

Our greens are 100% filled in and will speed up by this weekend. Expect to see firm and fast conditions when the weather cools down. Our fairways have been raised from 5/8" to 3/4" to prep for winter conditions when they will hardly grow. This will create a carpet like effect. Our tees have been overseeded and are starting to fill in. Expect to see them opening up by the following friday. Overall the golf course is in healthy shape.

updates

We have had a successful aerifcation. We should be back to normal conditions by the start of this weekend. We are also in the process of prepping and seeding all tee boxes.