Winter Recap

With us heading into February and no rainfall to account for this season I wanted to post our drought plan and throw up a lot of pictures of things we have been working on over the past six months.  Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog but it has been a busy season with no rainfall to give our staff a breather.


Water Conservation   

Action Plan 2014

The entire State of California is in need of substantial rain and snow fall to replenish our water supplies and prevent us from slipping into a serious drought this summer.  We are hoping that with the remainder of our winter season, heavy storm systems blow through allowing for significant amounts of precipitation.  With drought conditions likely to persist this summer, listed below are areas of the course that will be cut if restrictions are made.  Our main goal is to create a balance between great course conditions and being environmentally friendly with our water usage. 

Water Features

All of our lakes and ponds will not be replenished with the exception of #18.  The water fall feature on #18 will be maintained at an acceptable level.  We will also be transporting water from our lakes to irrigate the majority of our landscape beds.  Thanks to the hard work of our Landscape crew we now have a variety of drought tolerant plants throughout the course.  Instead of irrigating an entire bed with the system we can now be more selective with our watering.

Native Features

Our native features consume roughly 15 acres of the course.  There are approximately 100 sprinkler heads existing to irrigate this area.  We have already drastically reduced our water consumption in these areas. These features would be next on the list if restrictions are made.  We would allow them to brown out and allow for winter rainfall to revive them.

Rough Features

Areas of rough that are out of play would be the next area to take a look at if needed.  We would begin with areas that don’t have as much of an impact on play.  The area between #6 and #7 fairway would be an example of this.  We would continue throughout the course if needed.  A positive side to this would be that it would provide for easier course playing conditions.

Fairways

Hopefully it will never come to this, but in the case of a severe drought we would start by shutting off certain areas of the fairways.  Our main goal would be to concentrate on keeping the main landing areas healthy and let the remaining surface brown out.  Because of our advanced irrigation system, we can be very specific with what areas of the course we want to water.

                                                Driving Range

Based on the boards approval the driving range would provide a substantial savings if restrictions where enforced.  This area makes up roughly 5 acres and would provide a reduction in our usage. 

A few more notes on the drought and it's impact on our course and the budget.  If serious cutbacks are mandated (40-50%) we will look closely at our chemical applications to limit weed populations and enhance fall recovery.  We will need to look at raising our seed budget significantly to reseed all areas this Fall.  Let's hope for the best and pray for rain.

 #10 Lake Construction

Below you will see a lot of photos of the lake construction that took place in the Fall. Currently we are waiting on our permit to install (3) transformers to power the wells and new pump station. We are hopeful that by this spring we will be irrigating the course with our new well water.

Water has been drained. You can see all the sludge left in the bottom. Long ways to go.

 

You can see the far side of the photo where the wet well is going to be installed.

Sucking the sludge out!!

Wet Well Installed

 

Wet well installed, starting to install fabric for liner

Liner installed, starting Shotcrete process

 

Everything installed with water level starting to rise.  We are currently working on the finishing touches that include acid staining of the concrete, and irrigation -sod installation around the hard lines.  We were hoping for winter rains to fill the lake but obviously we are getting no help from mother nature.  We will be forced to fill the lake with our well water if we receive no rainfall.

Tree Removal

We removed a lot of trees throughout the winter to improve playability and enhance our views. The major areas where this occurred was left of # 3, #3 green, right of #6, left of #7, #11 green and left of #17.  Here are a couple of photos from the removal.

One of the big moterey's in this photo was already removed, the stone pine in front of the cuttings is next.

 

Now you have a chance to make par!

Left of # 7 fairway. Where are those beautiful oaks hiding?

 

Suprise! This area is currently being grow in.  The fairway will be widened eventually and will offer the players a risk/reward option if they are in position to go at the green on the second shot.

Another area to the left of #3 that really exposed the oak in the background and provided some more options from the T.  In all of the areas with tree removal we had to come back in and amend the soil.  Thanks to our new bobcat, it made the process a lot smoother.  Still it was a timely process to remove all those roots and create a new environment for our turf to thrive in.

Collar Expansion

  I'm sure by now most of you have seen the collar expansion around the greens. This was completed to make our surrounds more playable and offer our members some more shot options.

This is what the expansion areas look liked after we scalped them down, aerfied and seeded them.

Here's another look at what the areas looked liked after the scalping and seeding process. If you play on a weekly basis you will notice that these areas have recovered nicely.  Moving forward we will continue to aerify and seed these areas along with updating some irrigation.

What's on the Agenda

 Currently we are working on the final touches to the lake at number 10. Like I mentioned above we will be acid staining the concrete and finishing things off with some new sod of fine fescue to surround the edges.  After the transformers are installed we will set the new pump station and work with a contractor to construct the exterior as our "pump house." Once the lake is complete we will head over to #17 fairway to complete the area where the monterey pines were removed at the corner. This area will also involve installing a new fairway bunker as well. Time and budget permitting we have the T at the driving range to complete along with the bunkers at number 2.  Hopefully withing this time frame we will have had some rain fall to allow more employees to focus on projects and not course watering.  Feel free to email me at amorgan@pahgcc.net to talk about any concerns you may have or to set up a time tour of the course with me.