It been just over a month since we re-opened the golf course to our Members after going through a seven month long renovation. At the time we made a conscious decision to open the golf course because it was indeed playable but not quite "show ready". The decision was based on our desire to get our members back on their golf course to enjoy it while the weather was still decent and not open it in the dead of winter.
We knew there was still allot of work to be done to tie up the loose ends of construction as well as support the contractor who was still here through the month of October tying up loose ends of their own. We knew it would be difficult to make the progress that we wanted to make based on an intense tournament schedule of both Club Events and Monday Events for the first 45 days, most of that period severely understaffed on a new golf course that requires substantially more hand work.
Again the decision was made with the Membership in mind and I think for the most part it was the right one, as everyone seems to have enjoyed the changes, agreed that the course was playable and maintained an understanding that we are not done yet.
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| Most of the membership have told us that they really like the architectural changes that were made to the course during the renovation with one exception. The removal of the fairway bunker on the left hand side of #15. So, while we were open and Diamond golf was still here, we put in it back. Actually it is completely different bunker in a different position but more or less the same location. I call it the 7 day bunker because it was conceived, carved out and completed in seven days. |
Good news is we have made excellent progress on new employee recruiting, bringing our current GCM staff level to twenty adding nine new team members in the last four months, four of which joined the team in the last two weeks. And I'm not done yet. Of course there is training and assimilation that needs to take place, but the #1 threat to our success with this new renovation, lack of staffing, has now eased-up. Additional good news is that after November 15th we will not have a Monday event until the end of April 2022. This gives us Mondays through the winter to exclusively work on the course with out the distraction of a 10:00 AM shotgun. This is huge.
Bottom line is all of the loose ends that need to be tied-up are going to take some time. We are going to need an productive winter season along with some luck, praying for light rain at night and lots of snow to in the mountains to fill the reservoirs. The four main tie-up priorities we will be working on are:
- Fairways
- Irrigation
- Tree & Brush Cleaning
- Landscape
I'll go into the details of these in a future Course Update's. Of course we will still be prepping and maintaining the course for member play, but we need to make substantial strides on a detailed list of these main priorities before spring.
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| Packing sand with sand pro tires. We haven't been using the mechanical rakes to rake bunkers as the bunkers are smaller in general and and the maneuverability of the sand pros in these small bunkers is limited. |
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| #16 walk-up and surround doesn't look like much now but areas like these around greens have been scarified to open up some pretty dense hybrid bermuda turf canopies, and heavily overseeded with fescue varieties. With a little temperate weather to germinate seed, this overseeding in the green surrounds will really reveal the grassing vision of the surrounds in shot order. |
Thank you Granite Bay Members for your support, patience and course care. We have had no cart damage from member play that I am aware of. The ball marks on the greens are not nearly as bad and we had anticipated. The golf course has continued to get better while you have been using it, which is a testament to all of your efforts. Thank You.
