Drought

With July came another reduction in our water allotment. Up until now, we have been able to maintain the rough areas by watering 3 days a week. Unfortunately, to be able to maintain quality greens, tees and fairways, we must sacrifice the roughs even more. Starting July 1st we reduced our watering schedule on the roughs to 1 day per week. Hopefully this is enough to at least keep some of our warm season grasses alive.

Bye bye Kikuyu

Last week we made our first application of dimethylamine, a selective herbicide that kills Kikuyu. The Kikuyu is obviously struggling, while the other grasses (Bermuda, Rye, Poa) are relatively unaffected. A second application is scheduled for July 13th to ensure that we have a successful kill prior to starting phase 1 of our turf conversion plan.  

June Gloom

June gloom is in full effect. The low clouds and fog have really helped us conserve water this year. To date, our water use has been reduced by over 9 million gallons compared to last year. While this weather pattern is really beneficial to saving water, it does create a headache when it comes to disease pressure. Long periods of moisture make for the perfect breeding ground for disease. We are currently seeing disease on many of our tees and greens. Curative fungicide applications have been made this week and it appears that we have the pathogen in check.

Greens Update

The greens have rebounded fairly well from the recent aerification. Considering the size of the tines and the amount of sand we put down, I am pleased with where we stand at this point in time. With an aggressive spring aerification I think we should be able to ease off a bit when aerifying this fall. Unfortunately, as the greens began to heal, we started to notice disease (Rapid Blight) on many of the perimeters. Saticoy has long battled Rapid Blight, as it is often initiated when soil salts are high; something we fight throughout the year. Just this week a new fungicide has been registered in California which finally gives us an effective tool to control this disease. The product is on order and will go down as soon as we get it. 

Bunker entry/exit renovation

We have started to chip away at a long overdue project of lowering some of our entry/exit points on some of our bunkers. Initially, we are concentrating our efforts on the greenside bunkers, as this is the area that gets the most complaints. Thus far we have been able to complete the right front bunker on #1, the right front bunker on #5, and both front bunkers on #8. Others will be addressed throughout the summer based upon our tournament schedule and available manpower.

We first strip the existing sod and then remove the soil build-up. We always want to leave enough room to allow for subtle grading.

Once we have our desired level, we return what grass we were able to save and then patch the remaining areas with new sod.




Hopefully, within a few week you will never notice we were there.....

Greens Aerification In Pictures

Plugs are pulled on a 2"x2" spacing at a depth of 1.5"

After drying, the cores are piled and picked up by the crew

After we pickup the plugs, the greens are blown clean 

A liberal topdressing is applied

We drag the sand in, filling the holes

Calcium, magnesium, and potassium are applied

Fairway Aerification

We are in the process of aerifying fairways to reduce compaction and help water deeper into the soil profile. With any luck, we will complete the front nine this week, moving onto the back nine next week. From there we will revisit holes 1, 2, 3 and 5 with another pass in preparation for sodding later this summer. Please excuse our mess.....