Rainfall stats

I would like to share some rainfall stats with you to help put into prospective the challenges we have faced this year, both during the summer months and through the fall overseed. 

2013 was the driest calendar year in recorded history. The normal rainfall is 13.98 inches and this year we only had 3.60 inches. That's .5 inches less than the previous lowest year in 1957. In December alone we only had .23 inches on a monthly average of 2.76 inches.

Nothing is as good as rainfall. All the irrigation in the world will not deliver the same results as natural rainfall. Irrigation water is full of  minerals and salts that can become harmful to turf grass health unless we get rainfall to help flush and cleanse the soil.

The pictures below were taken today, December 31, 2013. It may not have the same look as it did last year at this time but it does show that my golf course maintenance crew are doing a great job even with all the challenges mother nature throws at us.

Happy New Year and I look forward to a great 2014.

Fairways on the Western Course

Western Course Fairways: Holes 2-8

In an effort to improve summer playing conditions, Braemar Country Club has decided to discontinue overseeding the fairways on holes 2-8 on the Western Course. We feel these holes have a healthy enough turf stand that withholding overseeding will promote a better playing surface in the summer months.

Although the appearance of those fairways may not be aesthetically pleasing, we do have good turf coverage going into the winter months. The off color appearance of these fairways is due to the warm season grasses going into dormancy.

The benefits of not overseeding will help the warm season grasses out-compete the cool season rye grass. This process over an extended period of time (4-5 years) will result in better summer playing conditions. Based on the fact that the playing season for the great majority of golfers is in the summer months, we feel that this decision is in the best interest of the membership as a whole.

You can help in this process of improving our fairways. Please avoiding driving through wet areas if there are not cart path restrictions and when cart paths only, please observe our request and stay on the cart paths.

Thank you for your cooperation! 

2013 Aerification/Overseeding Update

We are two thirds of the way complete with this years overseeding/greens aerification process.

The center course was completed two weeks ago and is starting to fill in and take on a good stand of ryegrass for the winter season. The greens are not far from being back and with the days getting shorter the green speeds will increase ( growth rate slows way down ).

The west course will reopen tomorrow, Saturday October 5. This year we did not overseed the fairways on holes 2 through 8 but did overseed the rough, tees and surrounds. Holes 1 and 9 were overseeded completely. The fairways on the west course have a good stand of warm season grasses, mostly likely due to the lack of overseeding in the past when the course was 36 holes. To keep overseeding them will eventually weaken the turf and the result is weaker fairways in the summer months. The fairways will not have a great aesthetic look over the winter months but the end result will be a better surface in 2014 summer playing season.

The east course will close next week for two weeks and reopen on October 19. This will complete the process for this season.

Please observe the carts on path rules. Currently the center and west course are carts on paths ( all holes ) until further notice and the east course will be carts on paths after reopening until turf conditions allow carts off paths.

Thank you for patience during this process.

David

Turf Improvement

Over the past few months our maintenance staff has continued working on turf improvement projects that we face every year in the summer months. Even though it has been a cool July and August to date, the lack of winter and spring rain has created additional challenges this year. With the lack of early season rainfall to flush the salts below the turfgrass root zone, the turf has accumulated an excessive amount of salt build up which inhibits the turfgrass getting adequate water to maintain it's health ( salt holds 50 times it's own weight in water ). With the lack of rainfall and a cool summer the warm season grasses have not had optimal conditions for substantial growth. We will continue with our sodding program to improve turf conditions until we begin to prepare for the fall overseeding.

# 2 fairway on the center course

 The approach on # 1 east course

The approach on # 3 center course

Upcoming course maintenance dates

Here is the schedule for the upcoming fairway aerification, overseeding and greens aerification for the remainder of 2013:

Fairway aerification:

Center course: August 5 through 9
West course: August 12 through 16
East course: August 19 through 23

Overseeding and greens aerification:

Center course: September 9 through 20 ( course will be closed during this period )
West course: September 23 through October 4 ( course will be closed during this period )
East course: October 7 through October 18 ( course will be closed during this period )

Thank you.

Summer is here

Summer is here and with the temperatures we had this past weekend, reaching 106 degrees, it could be a long summer. Over the next couple of months, before we begin overseeding this fall in September, we will continue to work on promoting turf coverage by slicing the fairways in weak areas and seeding with warm season grasses. We will also continue laying new sod in areas that require more immediate attention.

I do want to thank my crew for all their hard work. They work in the wind, cold, rain and heat to maintain the course and have it ready for daily play. They start work at 6am Monday through Friday and 5.30am on Saturday's and Sunday's to try and accomplish as many tasks as they can before play starts. I ask you all to watch out for them on the course and take their safety in to consideration when hitting without them being aware of your presence. We are unable to start any earlier than we do due to our neighbors around the course, so please give my crew the time to get there work done by not starting your round before the official 7am Monday through Friday tee times. Currently Saturday and Sunday is 6.20am so please observe this time also.

Have a great July 4th.

David Wolfsbauer
Golf Course Superintendent

Equipment Maintenance

Our head golf course mechanic is Jorge Contreras. Jorge has been at Braemar for over 12 years and does a great job keeping the equipment running. Thanks Jorge.

Jacaranda Tree Transplant

The Jacaranda tree that has been boxed in the parking lot since the clubhouse renovation was relocated yesterday to the center course. It is now in it's permanent position on hole # 7 in the rough, left of the cartpath ( behind # 8 tee ).

New Bunker added to # 5 on the Center Course

The new location marked out in white paint before work begins 

 Excavation 

 Drainage was installed and covered with pea gravel

 Installing new "minus 30 " sand

Bunker is finished and will be open for play this weekend when we reopen after aerification

New Ladies Tee # 5 Western

The new tee marked out in red paint before work begins.

Creating a rough level with a sand pro machine before final grading is done by hand

Laying new hybrid bermuda sod on the tee top

The new tee is finished. Approximately 12'' of sand and soil was added to the area to be able to create a level teeing area. Should be open in about 3 weeks.

2013 aerification process has begun

It is that time of year again when we need to do cultural maintenance practices that are essential to turf grass health. Therefore it is time to aerify. This week we are aerifying the East course. The west course is scheduled for the week of March 18 and the center course the week of April 1.

Sabino Huerta on # 3 green

 Sabino on the greens aerifier and Nolberto Mesa on the fairway aerifier

Jose Villegas ( left ) and Jose Diaz cleaning the plugs off # 2 green east

Clubhouse Views

Some views from the clubhouse taken today ( 2/11/13 )

# 6 Tee East course

More before and after views. We removed some small shrubs and trees to open up the view of the 8th hole from the 6th tee

Before

 After

Hidden Views

One of my goals for this year is to expose views of the golf course from different vantage points. This involves some brush and scrub tree removal and tree trimming. Below are some examples of what has been done recently.

Men's tee # 7 Masters before

After

Ladies tee # 7 Masters before

After

Ladies tee # 7 before

after

Hole # 7 Masters from the men's tee before

After

New stairway # 8 tee - U.S Open

A new stairway has been constructed by our maintenance crew leading down to the tee on # 8 U.S Open course

 Juan Contreras did a great job in making the stairs as level and secure as possible

Work halfway complete

The finished stairway along with a new mulch design to make it blend in with the tee sign/ballwasher and surrounding area