Course closed

It started raining last night and continued into this morning with some very heavy down pours around 6 am. I have closed the course until 10:30 to allow my staff time to clean up the facility and repair the washed out bunkers. 

So while my staff waits for the sun to come up and the rain to stop I had them polish the million dollar's worth of equipment in my building. There's always something that can be done. 

Birding / Environmental Tour Available

The Club's annual birding / environmental tours will begin on this coming Monday. The tours are lead by Brian Beckner, a former Superintendent turned Ornathologist, who brings a wealth of knowledge to all aspects of how golf courses benefit the environment. 

There is still room on Monday's tour if you are interested.  Please call Diane to reserve your spot. The tour starts at 7 a.m. at the cart barn and last about 1.5 hours. 

Caution....Road work ahead

Flashing lights and lots of orange lines and flags on the ground can only mean one thing, something is about to happen.  So you know me, I just went right up to the guy and said "Hey, whatcha doing?" 
As it turns out, all of the upcoming work is because the County is getting ready repave the roads from Solana all the way to Northgate Drive.  Yet before they can repave the roads, they have to solve the flooding problem in the neighborhood once and for all.  I've been here nearly 8 years and it seems that at least once a summer the neighborhood gets a rain so hard, so fast, and so overwhelming that the street floods from my office on the corner of Burning Tree and Solana all the way to the Clubhouse.  I'm talking serious flooding, like several inches over the crown of the road type flooding.



only a few inches from the center of those 20 inch wheels

The reason the road floods is because a large number of the houses in the neighborhood have illegally filled in the drainage swales along the side the road.  Also, a large number of houses that did get permits to fill in the drainage swales did it so long ago using galvanized drainage pipe that the pipe has deteriorated and collapsed shutting down water flow.  For example this yard.  When it rains, there is no place for the water to go as the swale along side of the road was filled in.  Additionally, there is a drainage inlet in the yard, but the grass is so tall that the water in the road cannot get to it.  So the road itself then turns into the drainage swale.

The results of all this filling in the swales and failed piping has turned the roadway into the drainage channel. 



between 3 & 16 green after a heavy downpour

Fixing the drainage problem and repaving the road will be a good thing for the Club when its done.  The process however will take some time and probably will upset some of the homeowners in our neighborhood that come home and now have a drainage swale across their yard where it was grass before.  So if someone asks be sure to tell them the road project has nothing to do with the Club!!!  We did not request the drainage improvement.  It all has to do with the County needing to pave the streets and they can't until they can get the water off the road.

El Niño Is Still Growing And Set To Get Even Stronger In The Next Few Months

The end might turn out much different than the beginning.  I know we've all be sitting around waiting for Sum-iter to be over, we'll you might not have to wait too much longer.  Here is an excerpt from my friends at IFLScience who did a big article recently....

"As we move into the New Year, it looks like El Niño is set to get worse, according to NASA, as the weather system is still growing. The strong winds currently going from the western to eastern Pacific that are driving El Niño are showing no signs of waning, with other data on ocean surface temperatures suggesting that it still hasn’t reached its peak yet. The weather system has been implicated in the fires that have spread across much of Indonesia, the floods that have hit large parts of South America, and the Indian heat wave, all seen in 2015.
Researchers are expecting the effects of the system to hit the United States over the next few months, ushering in a period of cool and wet conditions in the southern U.S., while things could be turning warmer and drier over the north of the country. These predictions are based on the last massive El Niño to have occurred back in 1997. The development of the current event bears a striking resemblance to that which occurred 19 years ago, which created a dramatic ice storm over New England and caused chaos along the Gulf Coast."

Credit NASA

I remember the winter of 1997 and it wasn't a fun time to grow grass.  It was my second season as a grass guy and most had never experienced a winter like that before.  Subsequently, it is the type of winter that I am always hedging my bets against when preparing for our golfing season so fret not.  The course is in great shape and should El Nino start causing havoc, we'll batten down the hatches and ride out the crazy weather knowing we were ready for it.