The Project at GBGC Update #1

July 4th is our Annual Flag Tournament.  The tournament has a 8:30 AM shotgun start where the GBGC flags with be replaced with the Stars & Stripes. Flagstick holders will be placed in collars close the the holes so the American Flag doesn't touch the ground out of respect. I hear there is a BBQ lunch to follow. Good Luck to everyone!

The Summer Solstice came and went on Friday June 21st this year and thankfully has brought with it little summer heat or fanfare so far.  Up till now, the GBGC Weather Station has only recorded three days over 100 degrees and another 4 in the upper 90's (+96) and these events have been surrounded by daytime highs in the mid to upper 80's.  The  Delta Breeze, our savior in the summer, has been very active this year which of course is a blessing unless you are a sprinkler trying to irrigate at night.

Gama, our irrigator here at Granite Bay often tells us he'd rather it was hot then windy as it doesn't take much wind to really affect the distribution uniformity of a underground sprinkler that shoots 60 feet. As I've mentioned before, we target our nightly irrigation amounts based on a calculation called Evapotranspiration or ET. This calculation is based on daily weather data fed to our irrigation system which adjusts automatically, increasing or decreasing irrigation amounts nightly. When wind replaces heat, such as the case when delta breezes are present, our ET #'s can be just as high as when we have heat and no wind. In other words we have to replace just as much water when it's windy as when it hot. And replacing it when it is windy is perhaps even trickier, ask Gama, as the water is not covering as well as when it is not windy. 

Rainbird sprinkler operating pretty efficiently in the absence of wind on #16.

We are not complaining as intense heat has a history of causing GBGC a lot of problems so the next 90 days our priorities are to minimize turf problems from the effects of summer. So far so good but there are 80 days of summer left and we are bound to get some prolonged heat sometime during that period. 

2017 reminder of what happens in the summer here at GBGC

There are a few constants that I have realized in my 12 years here at Granite Bay. First, summers can be hard on this golf course. Second, the fine line between wet and dry is very fine and drying this course down in the summer doesn't work. Third the Golf Course will be wetter in the morning then it is in the afternoon particularly in the summer as more water will have to be replaced during the longer, windier and / or hotter days of summer than needs to be replaced during the shorter, cooler days of fall & spring.   Logically the more water that needs to be replaced, the longer the irrigation system runs  making it wetter in the morning then in the afternoon. However there is a solution on the horizon for our summer time woes.

2019 Re-Grassing of the Surrounds and #17 FW

As a reminder our main motivation for moving towards converting our cool season turf to warm season turf is playability and the second motivation is  sustainability particularly in the summer. Hybrid bermuda is a firmer playing surface that requires less water and loves heat and because of that it is the ultimate sustainable turf in a State and world where water use on a golf course will be a defining issue. 

So here we go. We will start to prepare for the 2019 phase of this conversion next week and are still on track for contractors to start converting the remainder of our surrounds starting on July 29th. In preparation for re-sodding #17 FW we will be treating the entire fairway this coming Monday 7/8/19 in which we are closed. This treatment will kill the existing turf to prepare it to incorporate sand on 7/30/19. We will still be able to play golf on this fairway prior to 7/30/19, it's just going to gradually change color from green to brown as it dies. Additionally it will be drier as we won't have to irrigate it.

#17 Fairway turf  will be getting sprayed out this coming Monday 7/8/19.

Timing on completing re-sodding surrounds and #17 fairway is still August 16 - 18. My goal is to communicate progress during the project through the Granite Bay Course Update frequently with lots of pictures and explanations of the hows and whats of the project. Stay Tuned.