Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Course Conditions

Last week the course was tested with the highest temperatures of the season peaking at 100 degrees on Thursday and staying close to the 90's through the weekend. Other than some minor mottling in the fairways which is pretty normal for us this time of the year, the course came through looking really nice. We have continued our weekly Dispatch injections in the irrigation system which is assisting the water penetrate the surface. We will continue this through the summer in order to increase our watering efficiency.

The greens are best if we can keep them on the dry side so in order to do that we need to rely on Zefferino to hand water the hot spots. He has been doing a phenomenal job this season maintaining the moisture level. Also to assist him we purchased a moisture meter for him to look below the surface to help him see trouble spots before they develop.

Over all I feel the course is in the best shape I have seen it in for the 8 years we have been open, especially for July. I have been taking advantage of the great conditions and getting some nice pictures of the tall grass. Here is one of my favorite views that I like to take in the mornings. The seed heads on the fine fescue give the reddish hue which really sets the course off.

I wish I could have played the course over the weekend with the Men's Club British Open event. We rolled the greens on Friday and dropped the height of cut by 5/1000's of an inch. I am sure they rolled out nicely.

Prineville Golf Club Invitational
Over the weekend I had an opportunity to play in a ProAm tournament with Chris Gonzales at Prineville Golf  Club. My foursome included Nicki Ward, Vernie Santos, and Arron Breniman. We played pretty well but not well enough to cash. Although, I must say that Nicki play fabulously and won a pay ball Saturday on #6 with a birdie and she got 7th low net for the tournament. The weather there was in the 90's each day and the course was in great shape. This tournament has been known for it's small and very fast greens and the course lived up to its reputation.  Below is Arron teeing off over Chris's head on the 7th hole. Perhaps I shouldn't say much more other than Arron begged me to put a picture of him on this blog, so there it is.

I cannot say enough about the conditions of the golf course. After speaking to one of the two guys I saw doing the maintenance I was told that they just recently hired back some paid help to manage the course. With this economy they had to take drastic measures and lay off the entire maintenance staff and rely solely on volunteers to maintain the course. Now don't get me wrong, I would never condone this action but in this case I can see how they may have justified it. Prineville Golf Club is just a nine hole facility and they were able to rally the members and maintain the course through the hard times. They did an incredible amount of work to prepare for this tournament including tree trimming and brush clearing and weed wacking banks. I know that a one to two man staff could not have been responsible for that amount of work so big kudos to all the volunteer members including Retired Professional, Mark Payne for putting on such a wonderful two day event and providing such wonderful conditions.