Rain Dance Please!

The past, present, and immediate future of rain is not looking so good.  Not only for San Diego, but for all the western U.S. We had a record low amount of rainfall for the 2013 calendar year.  There is a good chance that water rationing will be returning unless we have a wet spring.  I have attached links to some good articles and charts regarding our current condition both locally and regionally:

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/12/29/6034515/is-the-wests-dry-spell-really.html#storylink=cpy

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304244904579278321514522650

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jan/10/san-diego-drought-cost-water/

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home.aspx

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Satellite-Map-Shows-California-Serious-Drought-Problem-240666561.html

http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18368


On the positive side, the weather sure has been great lately!

New Asisstant Superintendent Erik Krempien

I would like to introduce our new Assistant Superintendent Erik Krempien.  Erik is from a small town in southeastern Wisconsin and enlisted in the Marines after high school.  He was stationed at Camp Pendleton during his service in the Marine Corps.  After being deployed to Iraq twice as a machinegunner and one deployment as part of the 31st marine expeditionary unit, he decided to stay in California. He retained employment at the Rancho California RV Resort and attended Mt. San Jacinto's Turf and Horticulture program in Menifee.  After graduation, Erik was put in charge of the resorts golf course.  Three years go by and it was time to move on to bigger and better things.  Please feel free to introduce yourself to Erik when you see him on the golf course.

Fall is a busy time for our golf course maintenance practices.  We aerify the fairways, green surrounds, and tees in September.  In October, we aerate the greens and overseed the tees and green surrounds.

In order for the seed to germinate, it requires alot of extra watering at night and handwatering during the day.
Until the seed has fully grown in and has a strong root structure, these areas will be wet and will need to be kept free from all cart traffic.  

Effective immediately, there will be no cart access to the tees or green surrounds.  We will monitor these areas on a weekly basis and will notify the membership through an e-blast and a posting in the golf shop as soon as these areas are available for limited cart access.

Fall aeration and overseeding

We finished overseeding the Tees last week and plan on aerating the Greens this week.  Reminder that the course will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday for aeration.

April 17th update

Greens aeration went well and we have spread the plugs on the new putting green.  The new green should be open in approximately 3 months!  We have fertilized the course this week and will start aerating the fairways tomorrow. 

Update for March 26th

Last week we finished aerating the tees and this week we are aerating the green surrounds.  This process will last into next week.  If you noticed the rings on the greens, it is caused by a fungi called brown ring patch.  It has been sprayed for and will take 7-10 days to show signs of recovery. 

New practice green update

The contractor that built our new practice green, driving range, and short game area are standing behind their work and have decided to return and repair all the areas that were not aceptable or did not grow in correctly.  The new practice putting green settled during the grow in.  Therefore, they stripped the poa sod, leveled and compacted the greens mix to insure of no settling in the future.  We will then apply the plugs from aeration that is scheduled on April 9th and grow them in like we did in November last year.  The duration of this process will be shorter this time due to the weather.  It should be open in approximately ninety days from the laying of the plugs.  They also have fixed the drainage in the practice bunker and the cartpath from hole ten to the short game area. 

March 15th update

If you noticed the sand on the approaches, its from the aeration and topdressing this week.  During the summer the greens need leached to flush the salts through the soil profile.  This aeration of the approaches helps keep them from getting wet during that time. We will aerate them one more time in June just before leaching begins.  Next week we will be aerating the tees, followed by the green surrounds the following week. 

Update for Feb. 25th

This week we are applying fertilizer with pre-emergent to the entire course.  We are also edging, moving, and adding sand to the green side bunkers.  I've added a few tabs at the top of the page for the local weather forecast, a link to the clubs website, and a link to my email if anyone has any questions or comments on the golf course. 

Update for August 24th

The fertilizing of the course took longer than we anticipated.  So, we will finish the fairway aeration next week. 

Update

We finished needle-tining the greens and aerating fairways on hole 1,2,3,5,10,and 18 this week.  Next week we plan on finishing the fairway aeration along with fertilizing the course. 

Hydraulic leak on hole #10

We had a hydraulic hose break on our fairway mower on Hole #10.  You will notice a line up the center of the fairway.  The heat from the hydraulic fluid will kill the turf.  It should grow back in in a few weeks. 

Upcoming schedule

We will be needle tining the greens and aerating the fairways next week. 

Update

We have finished verti cutting the fairways, aerating the green surrounds and completed the tee leveling project!  We have topdressed the new tees this week and will do so again next week to smooth out the surface.  The estimated time of opening the tees will be July 20th! 

Upcoming Schedule

The verti cutting of the fairways has been delayed.  We have been resodding some worn areas with the turf from the tees we are going to be leveling starting next week.  We will also be fertilizing the course this week.  Next week we will be aerating the greens along with starting the tee leveling process.  This should take approximately two weeks to complete, with another  three to four weeks of grow in.  Reminder: we are closed next Tuesday and Wednesday for aeration.   

Next two weeks schedule

We plan on verticutting the fairways the next two weeks.  This will help with some of the off color areas in the fairways.  They are real thick and the mower scalps the turf everytime we mow. 

5 years of service!

Alexandro Perez recently celebrated his five year anniversary of employment here at Shadowridge.  Thanks Alex for all your contributions!

Continuing with rough aeration

We are continuing with rough aeration.  We should finish the back nine this week! 

update for the week of April 23rd

We spent the week aerating the rough on what we call the "bottom section" (holes 12-16), and moving sand in the green bunkers.  We will continue with these two processes next week.   Wednesdays rainfall total was .4". 

Fairway aeration

We are finishing up the fairway aeration today!  Next week we will start aerating the rough.