As I had mentioned towards the end of last year, we have
been working on a few things around the course while the turf was in a dormant
state. Here is a little update on what we were able to accomplish during that
time with a winter "skeleton" crew.
The trees along the left side of hole two have all been
limbed up to allow the irrigation to get to the turf. You should see turf
improvements all along that area this season. We have also been around to
various holes around the golf courses cleaning out deadwood (#2, #4) and
cleaning out desert mistletoe throughout the entire golf course. Desert
mistletoe is the dense cluster of brittle, leafless jointed green stems that
you will see most commonly in the mesquite trees. If mistletoe is ignored it
will spread from branch to branch and eventually to the neighboring tree. It is
a slow parasite but would eventually kill the tree.
Limbing up trees along #2 cartpath
We were able to get a few sumps done to drain water off the
cart paths. We started off tackling the bad ones first; 9, 11 and one leading
to the maintenance shop. We still need to get out to holes 7, 12 and 15 to get
these knocked out before summer.
#9 tee sump
The crew removing sod for the sump on #11 cartpath
#11 sump
#11 sump
Shop Sump
Shop sump
Finished shop sump
We have been trying to get the bunkers back into better
shape as far as playability and aesthetics go. The back 9 bunkers have been
edged out and cleaned. A lot of the bunkers had lost their lip on the low side
and have had a lot of bermuda grass contamination. Along with cleaning the
edges, we have been checking depths of the sand, moving sand and adding sand
where needed. We are shooting for 1.5-2” inches on the face of the bunkers to prevent any “fried egg” lies and 4-5” on
the bottoms to give the player a little fluff the splash their shot out. We are
continuing on the front 9 as we are about halfway through there.
As always, Philly, our mechanic, has been very busy in and around the shop
cleaning, organizing and preparing the equipment for another long season.
Clay McKinley
PDSCC Golf Course Superintendent
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