2025 Winter Update

Since mid October allot has been going on the golf course with projects and weather and I have neglected updating the Granite Bay Course Update with content. Therefore I will now attempt to catch-up and provide for those who are interested some context to what we in golf course maintenance have been up to.

Weather

What happens meteorologically effects everything we do in golf course maintenance which is why I bring it up in the course updates so much. Weather is never the same from year to year and can be predictable as it is un predictable. It is the one uncontrollable factor that effects golf course playing conditions the most from speed & firmness to turf health & sustainability.

The weather pattern that the fall and winter of 2025 will be known for so far is the return of the local phenomenon of The Unrelenting Tule Fog. According to the preceding linked article tule fog is, 

An atmospheric phenomenon occurring over much of California was unmistakable in satellite imagery in late autumn 2025. Fog stretching some 400 miles (640 kilometers) across the state’s Central Valley appeared day after day for more than two weeks in late November and early December. Known as tule (TOO-lee) fog, named after a sedge that grows in the area’s marshes, these low clouds tend to form in the valley in colder months when winds are light and soils are moist.  

1985, for example, Fresno experienced 16 consecutive days of dense fog, and Sacramento endured 17, according to news reports. Researchers have found, however, that tule fog has been forming less often in California in recent decades. Foggy days are beneficial for the valley’s fruit and nut trees, which need sufficient rest between growing seasons to be most productive. 

Interesting the Tule Fog is beneficial for tree crops however it is not beneficial for sports turf as it limits photosynthesis, the process where plants derive energy as well as the ability of the soil and course to dry out.

Above is a good representation of the foggy conditions that we experienced at GBGC in 2025 from late November until the Christmas Holiday storms as well as after those storms. These type of conditions do not facilitate drying of the golf course which inhibits GCM's abilities to get equipment out on the course to maintain it.

Above is rainfall data derived through December 2025 from GBGC's weather station located near the remote restrooms on #13. December's rainfall total was 8th most in the last 21 years but Novembers total rainfall is tied (2017) for 2nd most in 21 years only behind the 6.18" in 2012.

Despite the 4"+ rainfall we received in mid-November we were able to get carts back on the course after 4 clear days before the fog set in. We did not have to go back to cart path only until the Christmas Holiday storms dumped another 4"+ inches of rain as well as toppling trees. After this storm the tule fog returned immediately not helping at all with wet golf course conditions and following this we have another series of warm storms forecasted to begin the New Year.

This forecast will not help with drying the golf course out but there might be some short term light at the end of the tunnel.

Large Live Oak that toppled during the Christmas Day storm.

The tree toppled onto the back of the maintenance building and required some professional help to get it off the building without causing damage. Fortunately the damage was minimal and the tree has been removed from the building. 

Long Range Forecast 

Warm Subtropical System to Bring New Year Rain Before a Somewhat Quieter Pattern Takes Hold by mid January is the title of a Weather West article which is my go-to for long range forecasting. Excerpts from this recent post include:

December shattered many countless warm temperature records in the U.S. West. This map is not showing a data glitch: it’s showing where Dec 2025 will likely be the warmest on record (all dark red areas, which represents…most areas on the map). One of the only exceptions is CA’s Central Valley and parts of the SF Bay Area where tule fog reigned, though even here subtropical air at the end of Dec brought monthly average temperatures to above average levels (despite the notable damp chill earlier in the month). (climatetoolbox.org)

Looking ahead into January, a relatively active weather pattern may continue for another 7-10 days in California; thereafter, there are hints of a potentially more sustained break in mid-January with a West Coast ridge potentially developing. This is a relatively low-confidence pattern, though, so don’t hold me to it! I’ll be following this more closely in the new year.

Fall - Early Winter Projects

Since our 2021 renovation, GCM has been diligently working on the finishing touches of the project none of which is more important then adapting our irrigation system to improve coverage & control and irrigate our cool season rough independently of the warm season hybrid bermuda fairways. These retroactive adaptions are all part of our Master Plan developed post renovation as a roadmap to complete the many remaining tasks from 2021.  This work is typically conducted in the late fall through the winter, weather permitting and we have made great progress in 2025 as evidenced by the pictures below.

The Fall of 2024, which was the end of last years project completion window, we highlighted in a 2024 Granite Bay Course Update the work of drainage, irrigation, curbing and parking near the chipping green and behind #7 green.  Additionally that update highlighted the parking lot landscaping work we completed to end the 2024 year. In January & February of 2025 the second part of our project window,  we completed 7 blocks of irrigation heads on #2 and #12. Above depicts just some of this work in progress the beginning of 2025 on #12.

Once fall rolled around this year we began doing the same work of retrofitting our current irrigation system with "blocks" of irrigation heads that provide adequate coverage and control to the irrigation of the cool season rough independently of the warm season fairways. Above shows this installation in process near #4 green.

This picture is a really good representation of what we trying to achieve with these "block" irrigation installs to adequately irrigate the rough independently of the fairways. The picture shows multiple small irrigation heads controlled by one valve directed towards the rough and not the fairway. 

Once we were done with "block" installation on #4 we moved to #6 and worked over there for most of the month of November, completely surrounding the rough with these "block" irrigation heads. Because of the slope of #6 we utilized jute netting over the exposed irrigation ditches ahead of the mid November atmospheric river on 11/13 till 11/17. This was done in a abundance of caution to protect the susceptible compacted bare dirt covering a matrix of pipe, irrigation heads & wire. Mission accomplished as we did not have any erosion issues even after 4"+ of rainfall. 

We addressed as well the fairway bunker in the middle of #6 and the cool season turf that surrounds the bunker.

Above depicts the finished product of the work around the bunker awaiting seed germination in the ditches which is slow this time of the year particularly with the lack of sun from the above-mentioned tule fog.

Once we were done with #6 we moved to #2 to repeat the process there. We spent the month of December 2025 working on blocks on #2. 

This work is not just about plumbing pipe and adding irrigation heads. Equally important to the actual infrastructure of the block irrigation heads is the control of the valve the operates this infrastructure. There is always a calculation on how to get a control wire to this valve for these new block heads as control is as key to the plan as the coverage the block infrastructure provides.
Above depicts some wiring work we did on #2 to both facilitate control wires to the new block infrastructures on #2 as well as moving the irrigation controller across the cart path which was something we needed to do to expand some turf in the area.

Above shows the new location of the irrigation controller that we moved just before Christmas on #2.

The installation of this block infrastructure is key to GBGC's long term success. Areas addressed with this same process in 2022 to 2024 include #13, #15, #5, fairway bunkers #2 & #4 to name a few. Even though many members play weekly, the re-call of the before and after of these areas are many times vague. In GCM our memories are not vague as we work with these areas daily and have always strived to provide the best playing and aesthetic conditions for the course to achieve consistent playability, sustainability and sale ability. That is why we are working tirelessly to install this infrastructure as we know beyond a shadow of a doubt how this generational work will continue to transform this golf course.

In 2025 we installed 18 blocks, and we have another 8 we are planning to get done in January to February of 2026, weather permitting. This won't complete all of this work detailed in the GBGC Master Plan but will have addressed most of the worst areas that have been identified. The summer of 2026 is looking up, and yes, despite the gloomy wet & cold we are currently experiencing, Summer is Coming!

2025 Fall Update & EZ Locator

Much has been happening since we last updated the Granite Bay Course Update in September from overseeding progress, tee leveling and the implementation of some new software for daily putting surface pin locations. 

We have been using a daily pin location software program called  EZ Locator for the past few months and after working out all of the GBGC customization, we  are now officially rolling out it's implementation to members. 

                                                                    EZ Locator  ......

• Saves on Course Set-Up Labor
• Eliminates Placement Errors and Guesswork
• Isolates Areas for Agronomy Purposes
• Adapts Hole Locations for Wet / Dry Weather Conditions
• Allows for Review of Historical Hole Locations
• Adapts for Tournament Play & Protected Hole Locations
• Creates 7 Days of Hole Locations in Under 5 Minutes
• Daily Hole Locations Can Be Accessed with Daily Printed Pin Sheets or Through the EZ Locator Mobile App.

Now that we have made all of the Granite Bay adjustments to the program, we feel comfortable in officially rolling it out to members and will start using Yellow Only Flags on Friday 10/17/25. Members can pick up daily pin sheets from the Golf Shop or scan the QR code below and download the EZ Locator Mobile App and see precisely where the pin locations are for the day. Additionally any other Golf Courses that use EZ Locator that you visit will have a QR code available allowing the same access to pin locations there. There are hundreds of courses nation wide that utilize EZ Locator. Locally Del Paso uses the software.

GBGC QR Code for EZ Locator

Tee and Shady Surround Overseeding

In our last Course Update in September we chronicled the annual overseeding all of our Hybrid Bermuda tee tops and selected shady green surrounds on #1, #2, #3, #6, #10, #13, #14, #15 & #18. These areas need overseeding for winter activity and in the case of the green surrounds the shady conditions that hybrid bermuda doesn't perform well in. Below are some pictures of the overseeded surfaces.

Above is the Cobble Tee Level on #2 only 3 weeks removed from overseeding. The rapid growth of the cool season perennial ryegrass growing in the decelerating growth of the warm season hybrid bermuda will be the grass that you play golf off of all winter into the spring. As the hybrid bermuda starts to grow at that time then rapidly take off in the summer, the ryegrass will be overcome until fall when the bermuda slows down and we start the whole process over again.

This is the shady surround of #2 green. We overseed these areas like the tees because hybrid bermuda does not do well in the shade, particularly winter shade when hybrid bermuda slows down. The same dynamic of the overseeded tees applies to the overseeded shady surrounds. Ryegrass will dominate until the hybrid bermuda overcomes it in the summer, then we will start the process over again in the fall.

#13 Tee Leveling

In 2021 when we renovated the golf course all of our tees were leveled and re-grassed with Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda. There was a tremendous amount of construction in the #13 tee area if you recall prior to shaping the new tee levels. Unfortunately these tees were grassed later in the renovation process and because of the amount of rock demolition and fill that occurred in the area, we had some settling that has required leveling of the Club Tee Levels. Below are pictures of the process that will tell the story of this leveling.

This is a picture from April 2009 during the re-grassing of the Granite Tees. In the background you can see the then location of the Club Tee Level and the large rock formation that inhabited the area.

Fast forward to 2021 during the renovation and the removal of these rocks. The rock formation is approximately where the Club Tee Level resides today. All of the broken  granite boulders were moved to build the rock wall in front of #3 green.

Here is Enrique Reyes Huerta, tee leveler extraordinaire checking grades after stripping all of the sod off the tee and it's surrounds.

After hauling in sand and soil into the area, Enrique is now using a box grader to start the fine grade leveling process.

After getting the grade right, here we are replacing the sod. The short grass that had already been overseeded was laid back onto the leveled surface and  afterwards the taller surround turf will be installed around the tee-top.

The truly finished product will be the tee you play golf off of in a few weeks after the sod has rooted down. Above represents our current finished product after leveling & re-sodding.

The stripping, dirt hauling, leveling, and re-sodding of the Club and Cobble levels of #13 required over 100 man-hours of labor, moving close to 50 yards of soil and sand in what will be a 3 day period when we are finished.

Thank You for Your Support

2025 Fall Aeration & Seeding

Coming up a week from now on Tuesday 9/23/25 we will celebrate the 2025 Fall Equinox. The reason we celebrate is half of our golf course, the rough, still consists mostly of cool season varieties of turf that are susceptible to Sacramento summers. And even though we had what will be  considered a mild summer by Sacramento standards, its still summer with long days and plenty of heat that can effect cool season turf negatively. The equinox marks the official end of summer and is the best time to refresh the cool season areas on the course with new seed. 

The cool season rough at Granite Bay encompasses over half of all playing surfaces after our fairway  turf conversion in 2021 to warm season Santa Anna hybrid bermuda. In the four years since this conversion we have made substantial progress on improving irrigation coverage in the rough to mitigate the effect summer. We plan to continue this work after we complete aerification and seeding of the rough which is in process right now ahead of and during the equinox. 

The picture above is an example of the irrigation work GBGC GCM has been working on in the fall and winter seasons since the 2021 renovation. The smaller sprinklers depicted are designed to improve irrigation coverage into the rough only. These "blocks" of irrigation heads aim into the rough, are completely controllable and have made a substantial difference maker in every place we have installed them. These "blocks" of irrigation heads are the key to GBGC's cool season rough success during future summer's and we plan to return to installing them later this fall and through the winter. 

First Things First

Before we can get started on installing these irrigation blocks, we need to get through our clubs early fall business, while aerifying and seeding rough and overseeding the Santa Anna hybrid bermuda tees and select shady surrounds. Aerifying and seeding the rough in the fall has always been something we need to do at Granite Bay after the summer losses of varying degrees. Theoretically after we complete the irrigation install over the next couple of winter seasons, we wont have as many summer losses. However I suspect we will always need some refreshing with seed in the rough during the fall. Below is a schedule of our aerification and overseeding process for the fall of 2025 and some overseeding & aerification process pictures

2025 Tee Overseeding Dates

Monday 9/22/25 - Prep & Overseed Back tee's 1-18

Tuesday 9/23/25 - Prep & Overseed B9 Tees & Shady Surrounds - B9 - Closed

Wednesday 9/24/25 - Prep & Overseed F9 Tees & Shady Surrounds - F9 Closed

Overseeding Steps

Step #1 is to scarify the surface of the tee, This scarification process thins out the stand of Hybrid Bermuda allowing space for ryegrass seed to nestle in and make contact with the soil.

Step #2 is to clean up the debris created during the scarification process. Here we are blowing the debris into an accessible area for sweeping up with the big sweeper.

Here we are sweeping

Step #3 we mow the scarified, cleaned up surface preparing it for seeding.

Step #4 apply ryegrass seed. We overseed at a rate of 400 lb's per acre.

Step #5 we topdress over the top of the seed with clean sand.

Step #6 we irrigate  to "push" the sand & seed into turf canopy.

Above depicts the surface after the six step process described above.

And here is the surface a few weeks later after the seed has germinated and surfaces have been mowed a couple of times. 


Thank You for Your Support

2025 Fairway Aeration & Expansion of Our Santa Anna

In our previous Granite Bay Course Update we outlined our planned Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda expansion and the steps we took to prepare areas for re-grassing with aeration cores. This past week beginning Monday July 7th we were closed for fairway aeration in which we utilized the extracted cores from the fairway aeration process for the re-grassing of the areas we prepared the preceding weeks. 

This was the first time we endeavored to expand hybrid bermuda in this fashion and we learned quite a bit from the experience. Below are pictures of the process for those who are interested.

Step one in fairway aeration is all sprinkler heads, valve boxes & yardage markers have to be flagged so aerifyer operators can lift and avoid these obstacles while aerifying. 

Second step for us is to aerate around these sprinkle heads creating a buffer zone for the following aerifyer.

Third step is we aerify up the fairway now that we can navigate around sprinkler heads easier having aerated around the sprinkler heads ahead of this aerator.

The fourth step is to collect cores and place them in the prepared areas that we described in our last course update. This is the step that we knew the least about going into expanding the Santa Anna. After some experimentation with other pieces of equipment and methods, we settled on careful removal of the extracted fairway cores using our front end loader to push, pick-up and move to the expansion areas. This was a relief as it is productive of a process as there is, and we ended up using substantially more cores then we initially thought. The areas stripped and prepared on #9 & #8 measured approximately 12,000 square feet and they took all of the cores generated on hole #8 & #9. We wanted to keep the cores intact for a better end result so using the loader turned out to be a BMP versus sweeping up the cores with our giant sweeper which would have broken these cores up.

Step five, move the cores to the prepared areas.

Step six was to rake the cores onto the prepared area.

Here is the finished product after raking.

Step seven after we have removed cores for re-grassing expanded areas we drag remaining cores for removal.

Step eight is to remove the cores with sweepers and blowers.

Step nine is to mow ahead of  sand topdressing

Step ten is to sand topdress the aerified fairways.

Sand topdressing is the process that is the most time consuming of all of the fairway aeration processes. This year in  31/2 days we moved 700 tons of sand, covering 30 acres of fairways, 4 yards at a time from three strategic locations

2024 picture of the topdressor working in front of #4 green.

The area above circled in green is another 2024 picture showing one 4 yard load spread out on #16 fairway. 

Enrique Reyes Hureta, the man, the myth, the legend, the one behind the spreading all of that sand in 3-1/2 days. We couldn't do it without him

The last step in the fairway aeration processes brushing in the sand. We brush all fairways twice during the process. 

What To Expect When You Return To The Club Saturday 7/14/25

When you return Saturday you will encounter freshly aerated fairways with open holes and remnants of topdressing sand. Open holes can dry the surface out so the fairways could be a bit wet in areas initially. There will be sand present so if you do not want to scratch you irons, you might consider a using older irons until the sand disperses.

Here is what the freshly aerified  fairways will look like from afar.

And a closer look you will see aerification holes which will be gone by the end of next week

You will also notice all of the areas that we put the aeration cores into having some temporary soaker sprinklers installed on the surface. The trick to getting these cores established is to keep them moist during the initial rooting stage and this temporary soaker irrigation will help us achieve just that. The re-grassed area doesn't look like much now, but by the end of next week we will see green grass getting started. By the end of July we hope to see substantial coverage over the area and by the end of August we hope to have full coverage.

More to come on our Santa Anna Expansion. Thanks as always for your support of our efforts on the course.