Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Course Conditions

After playing on Saturday and limping in with an 84  I can honestly say this course is in the best shape I have seen it for this time of year. All spring and into Junuary, I, like everyone else complained about the rain but now it is our turn to enjoy the benefits of it all. Last year I was shutting down the creek pumps this week and so far the creek is flowing great! If we can delay turning on the well pump we can save thousands in power costs. I have heard comments from golfers that the course is greener than it ever has for this time of year and that is true. Zeferino has been busy fine tuning the sprinkler heads and has found a few that are not working properly. He has been right on every one of them and has done a great job repairing and hand watering where needed.

The Take-all-patch I spoke of last week is pretty much all but gone. The copper spots are none existent and all that remains are faint thin areas that are recovering and will pretty much be fully recovered by this time next week. Here is a good comparison of a spot that was on the front of the 18th green. I am very pleased with the response we got from the Heritage and manganese. We will chalk this one up to experience and will keep a close eye on pH's and calcium inputs. I just heard that another course close to the same age has experienced the same thing. We will have to put our heads together and see what else could have brought it on.

Project Update

I think we can pretty much proclaim the new tournament building complete! It was well worth the effort. I am very pleased with the work of all the contractors involved from Pacific Mobile to Specialized Construction, and Showscapes Landscape Construction. Once we finish painting the back deck then all the projects will be complete and we will look as good as new. When I was at the coast last week Chris Anderson thought that we could flip the boards on the deck and avoid having to use a solid stain once again. His crew spent a few days flipping the boards which was a job in itself but will be well worth the effort. Now we can apply a semi-transparent stain which will last much longer and will be much more pleasing to look at. They are going to begin painting today and we will need to stay off the deck until Thursday to allow it time to completely dry. Maggie said they will have to shut the BBQ down but she is OK with that. The nice warm weather ahead of us this week will be perfect for drying the paint.

Specialized Construction put the finishing touches on the new spike cleaning station and we ended up purchasing a new compressor from Grainger. The old one made it four years which I must say was pretty good. I think this will contain the grass much better but we will still need to be vigilant in keeping the grass swept up.

I must finish this weeks report with a picture of our new family member and future goose chaser. Ryder hasn't quite figured out how he feels about him but we definitely love him. We picked him up from the breeder in Amity last Friday and he has already found a place in our heart. His name is Enzo and we will bring him by in a few weeks after he finishes his round of vaccines.