Work on the wall continues

We engage in a lot of 'outside' details to improve on the golf course and the surroundings. One such item is the stone wall in front of the clubhouse. Our resident 'stone man', Gilberto Navarro, has been working on the wall when time permits. Gilberto is our primary fairway mower, and also is responsible for all of the stone work that has been completed around the course. This spring, we have been mowing fairways more often. As a result, there has not been a lot of work taking place on the stone wall. We are fortunate to have Gilberto on our staff, and he will continue with creating another one of his masterpieces.

Water Conservation

Water management is one of most important jobs that I tackle each day. The amount of money spent on water is the largest line item in the budget with the exception of labor. We utilize two on-site weather stations that give us the amount of moisture lost to the environment, known as evapo=transpiration (ET). ET looks at temperature, humidity, wind, and solar radiation, a fancy way of saying sunlight strength. Our irrigation computer calculates the amount of time each sprinkler runs based on the angle of the sprinkler, nozzle type, pressure, and spacing. All of this info is crunched in the computer, and then we are given the number of minutes each station is scheduled to run. We then have the ability of tweak each sprinkler if it is too wet or too dry. With more than 24oo sprinkler heads, it is time consuming, but well worth it as this is one of the most important factors in getting the golf course in as good as condition as possible.

We do everything we can to conserve water, but we manage only about 120 acres of turfgrass. This dwarfs the amount of grass located in the neighborhood. Most turfgrass is located on home lawns, but are you doing your part in protecting this valuable commodity? Many homeowners change their controllers twice a year, summer and winter. The new breed of irrigation controllers use the same technology we use where the ET is used to control how much water is applied. With the recent news telling of rations and drought, it may be time to upgrade your old controller to the new style. You can expect to save more than 25% on your water bill, and also know you are doing your part to save this valuable resource of water. We need to be pro-active and conserve now before the water companies mandate how they think we should conserve. Every little bit helps. When shopping for a new controller, look for one that has the ET sensor technology. The controller downloads this data from a local weather station and automatically changes the number of minutes each of the zones waters. These controllers, known as Smart Controllers, can save 30% or more on your water bill. Another area to check is the rate of water that is applied in your irrigation system. Take an old tuna can or similar container, and place it in different areas around your yard. Turn on your sprinklers for 15 minutes, and measure how much water you have. A quarter of an inch in 15 minutes would represent 1 inch per hour. On average, kikuyugrass in this area requires about 3/4" of water per week.

Below is the forecast for the week for Palos Verdes. ET would be expected to be around .15" per day.

Forecast: Next 5 Days
MAX Temp
5 /20 Tue 74
5 /21 Wed 74
5 /22 Thu 70
5 /23 Fri 70

Page Hits reach 300

The blog seems to be catching on and with the comments I receive, becoming more popular. It is not a secret that the members are quite passionate about their golf course. And with that passion comes the need to know more. Hopefully, this website is giving you the additional information to the ins and outs of what we do to maintain this great facility. In less than 4 months, we have reached 300 page hits. Thank you to all that regularly visit the site and let your friends know this site exist. Let your buddies know this website is available. I enjoy getting the word out on what we do, and if there are topics you wish to be discussed, let me know and I will do my best to incorporate them. Email is the best way for this, pat@pvgc.com.

Hot once again!

Well, there seems to be a pattern developing with hot weather coming every other weekend. Again, the biggest impact on the golf course is that kikuyugrass and bermudagrass thrive on warmer weather. There is no doubt the color and even growth on the fairways and roughs are the benefit of the warm temperatures.

The new sod recently installed on the tees following laser leveling will also benefit from the heat. Bermudagrass will grow rapidly with this kind of heat, and I would expect to see establishment at a faster clip as a result. There have been a lot of positive comments with the tee leveling, and our hope is get them playable as quickly as possible.

Life is short... SOD IT

This catchy phrase is the slogan for West Coast Turf, a sod grower in Palm Desert. We took their advice and laid more than 6000 square feet of sod today on the tees that were laser-leveled yesterday. The bermudagrass sod will provide an excellent playing surface. With normal weather, we hope to be playing on the new tees in 2-3 weeks. The plan is for the laser level to return the first week of June to finish the blue tee on 15, the main tee on 17, and hopefully have some time to complete a few others. Hats off to our staff who worked hard to lay this amount of sod in one day while still performing other tasks throughout the day.

Laser Level

On Wednesday, we had an outside contractor laser level the tees on holes 2, 4, 15, 16, and 17. We also tried a new technique, which laser topdressed the blue tee on hole 8. Attached is a 20 second video of the machine in action on hole 2. It is amazing the accuracy of this box blade. The 2nd tee is 1% slope from left to right, and 1 1/2 % from back to front. The slope is put in to move water off the tee during a heavy rainstorm. (It does happen once and awhile!) The tees will be sodded Thursday, and we should be playing on them in a few weeks.

Heat is on the way

The weather forecast is calling for some warm/hot weather for the rest of the week. By Friday, they are saying we could hit 90 degrees. When we get temps that warm, the biggest impact is things really start growing. Kikuyugrass is a warm season grass, which basically means it likes it warm. We should see a lot of growth in the roughs as they are predominantly kikuyugrass.

An update on tee leveling... the machine will be here tomorrow to laser level the tees we have prepared. We have expanded the project slightly, with the following tees being leveled:
2 lower blue tee. 4 back blue tee. 15 upper blue, white, and red tees. 16 new back tee. 17 front of main tee. Along with these tees, we will also be laser topdressing some other tees where we will heavily topdress, and the tractor will level them out. This will be done to round out a full day. SOD WILL BE LAID ON THURSDAY!