Granite Bay Tees

Any one who has been a member of Granite Bay Golf Club for any length of time recalls our original tees and how we have been painstakingly replacing the original turf on them throughout the years. Newer members might be wondering about the inconsistencies in firmness versus softness and why some of them look just awful. This update will address all of these issues and let you know both the short and long term  plan for fixing them.

Our tees were originally seeded with creeping bentgrass which is a cool season grass commonly used for putting surfaces in our area. Not many courses in our area, none to my knowledge, started with bentgrass on their tees. This is  primarily because of the  intense maintenance requirements  for bentgrass and it's inability to recuperate on a teeing area  during the summer months. In the early years of the club it was nearly impossible to keep grass on some of the tee's during the warmer parts of the year as any charter or long time member can attest. Because of this, the decision to replace the bentgrass was a given.



Newly Sodded Club Tee on #12



This decision was made almost 12 years ago but back in those days allot was going on. The Club was going through a management transfer from the original ownership group to Club Corp and the members had a lot of pressing issues such as lack of grass on the greens, lack of cart paths etc. When it came to the tees, turf replacement started with the very worst areas and then progressed as other teeing levels took their place in the infamous pecking order of "next worst". It was not one big capitol project for there were many other needs vying for those precious capitol funds. The replacement sod was purchased through the maintenance budget as areas became unacceptable. Currently we have re-surfaced close to 80% of all the original bentgrass teeing areas on the course.

The replacement turf choice was a variety of hybrid bermuda called Tiffway II. This is a warm season, fine textured hybrid bermuda that produces a durable, firm surface with a high recovery rate ideal for  teeing areas. The new hybrid bermudas have a much better cold tolerance then their Great Grandfather common bermuda allowing them to hold on to color longer and come out of dormancy quicker. However dormancy of the bermuda was never going to be a big issue on the teeing areas  because the plan was to always over seed with ryegrass in the early fall, allowing them to be green all winter long.



Installing New Sod #6 Club / Cobble / Pebble Tee's

We are currently dealing with some of those "next worse" tees.  The Cobble tee on #2. The combo Club, Cobble & Pebble tee on #6. The Club tee on #12 and the Cobble tee on #17 are all currently being re-sodded. This leave us with only 22% of all of the teeing areas left on the course to re-sod. Our plan is to next year utilize a combination of sprigging and sodding of the remaining tees bringing some closure something that was started long ago.


#6 Club / Cobble / Pebble Tee in need of new turf.