2024 Fall Projects

We have been making steady progress with projects that are part of our Granite Bay Golf Course Master Plan after overseeding tees and select areas of the surrounds and collars in late September. Despite having numerous club events and a busy tournament calendar, the cooler weather and shorter days of fall slow the growth of the Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda Fairways and reduce the need for irrigation and associated management opening up windows to advance on our plan. The progress we have made the past five weeks has been good considering great fall golfing weather and the need to prepare and maintain the golf course daily. Below are some pictures of the progress.

Overseeding with ryegrass in the collars was successful. This might be a temporary fix as ryegrass is very susceptible to our summer conditions, but ryegrass can take a low height of cut better than the tall fescue collars originally installed in 2021, and that we seeded the ryegrass into.

First fall project we did after overseeding was to replace the walk-on sod to the upper PG

The second project we did was to fix the perennially bad area behind #7 green. This area has always been bad, exacerbated by tree roots, inadequate irrigation infrastructure and a drainage water pattern that washed walnut shells and dirt onto the turf of upper left chipping area. It took us three weeks to dig drainage, pour curb and gutter, install irrigation, condition the soil and re-sod and add and pack DG for cart parking.

Behind #7 green on the left-hand side where we removed some walnut shells and added turf. 

Drainage was a big problem in this area and there wasn't any drainage infrastructure nearby to tap into, so we had to tap into some below the chipping area.

Here is the curb and gutter with associated drainage inlet that was installed to control traffic and catch water that comes through this area during rain events.

After #7 we started working on The Clubs entrance way landscaping which could take us the month of November and is part of our Master Plan. The first area we addressed was repairing the irrigation on the barren bank to the right of the #8 tee along the driveway. This area was originally irrigated with drip irrigation which we long ago identified as inoperable for any length of time at GBGC because the of the dirty water we pump out of our pond between #1 & #9 clogging drip filters and emitters. Replacing this system with overhead water will allow the lavender that is already there to thrive as well as new plants we plan to add in the very near future.

We have already cleared the way for new irrigation and planting on the next parking lot mound as you drive into The Club. 

More to come on this, but the work we will be doing this year is just part of the plans we have for the entrance way, parking lot and clubhouse landscape and is largely focused this year on repairing irrigation infrastructure.  Without proper irrigation in the west, you can't sustain turf or plants and is a major theme of our plans.

Additional Work on #2

Earlier this month we detailed a course improvement in the GBGC Course Update intitled #2 Fairway Exit. In this update we promised more information to come on a golf active native area across the cart path on the right-hand side of #2 about 140 yards out. This past Monday 2/26/24 we were able to complete another phase of this project and below are some pictures of this work to date. 

Above is a good picture of the area we are talking about to the right of the cart path on #2. There has always been allot of golf activity in the area if you drift right and skip through the walnut shells.

Our main motivation to repair the area was the need for a better point of connection for the drainage system coming off of the #2 fairway as well as the drive off area we recently added a substantial amount of drainage under a sand cap. Above depicts this new point of connection.

We decided to expand the main 15" N-12 drainage line 80' allowing us grade and clean the area facilitating moving the hazard line back 20 to 30 feet towards the tree line. 

Plans are never quite as easy as you draw them up. We ran into an old willow stump that we had to dig out and bury. Above is Enrique doing just that. 

Above shows the 80' expansion of the 15" N-12 drainpipe before it is buried.

The above pictures depict the area after initial grading. We still have some irrigation work to do and as soon as weather permits, we will seed the area with tall fescue. We plan to maintain the area at rough height so it will be much easier to find your ball. The area is still penal as you have to navigate mature Oak Trees to get to the green, but you should expect a better lie to punch out of or for the risk takers amongst us, navigate the trees.

Coming Up This Spring

DryJecting Putting Surfaces

DryJect Aeration is a noninvasive, small-hole, deep tine aeration process that uses water to inject sand deep into a putting surface. This process will be very beneficial for our greens as it will drive sand deeply through grow-in layer of sand into original sand facilitating deeper root growth. We are having this process done Monday 3/6/24. I'll post a GBGC Course Update later next week showing the process.

Core Aeration of Rough

As soon as it is dry enough, we plan to start the core aeration of our rough. We plan to core aerate then remove the cores on a couple to three holes at a time weather permitting. Holes that we will be working on will be closed to cart traffic while we are working on them. If we are fortunate, we will complete the entire process by the end of March but we will need dry weather to do so. More to come on this as well.

Thank You for Your Support 

#2 Fairway Exit.

We just completed improvement to an area on the second hole that has been historically challenged and long overdue for repair. This area is on the right-hand side of #2 about 135 yards out, adjacent to the cart-path, and an ideal drive-off area for cart traffic due to its proximity to the path. If you don't recognize the area from the prior description, you will recognize it from the pictures below and agree it was one of the worst turf areas on the course since practically day one. Turf in the area struggled from the same common decomposed granite & clay soils that we struggle with throughout the course as well as shade issues and compaction which is a bad combination. Below are pictures that tell the improvement story. 

Above depicts the before image of the aforementioned historically bad area on the right-hand side of #2 along the cart path. This area is a natural drive-off area for carts and has never been good. Its condition is particularly bad in the winter months as the sun hides behind the trees running up the right-hand side of the hole most of the day. Historically the area will get a little better in the spring when the turf fill's in as the days get longer and the sun is higher. But once we start to use the area to exit the hole with cart traffic it gets thin and bad rapidly and the cycle begins anew. 

Circled in red is the specific area addressed and is part of our Master Improvement Plan which now will earn a big red checkmark near this section as we have completed at least this part of the work on the right-hand side of this hole.

Step #1. We did some tree pruning and thinning. Allowing more sunlight into this area year-round will be an on-going need and critical to this areas or any turfgrass areas success.

Step #2. Remove the sod. Very little of this sod was salvageable. We sod cut the area and removed it with the excavator.

More of the crew removing the piled-up sod.

Step #3. Excavating 4" of native soil. Shade and soil were the main things we needed to mitigate if we are to have successful turf in the area.

The entire area scrapped clean after excavating 4" of native soil. 

Step #4. Installing drainage. Above depicts just part of the drainage pattern we installed in the area.

At the upper edge of the cavity, we installed drainage chambers which we hope will aid in removing sheeting water coming off of the fairway slope which tended to settle in the lower area along the cart path. 

To ensure a clear flow of drainage water from the areas new drainage system, we wanted to establish an independent drainage line which meant coming across the cart path providing us with a decisive way to monitor drainage flows. 

Step #5. Filling the drainage lines with gravel.

We estimate we removed over 100 tons of soil from the area and temporarily stockpiled it in the open area between #2 & #12. We have future plans for this soil.

Step #6. Filling the cavity with sand. This will be one of the keys to this area's success. We added 100 tons or 80 yards of tee sand to the area along with another 20 tons of gravel for the drainage ditches.

Step #7. Finish grade and compaction. The planning of this project has been ongoing for some time, but the execution happened rather rapidly between rainstorms. We stripped the sod and dug out 4" of soil on Monday 1/29 with no rain, dug and installed drainage on Tuesday 1/30 and moved 100 tons of washed tee sand into the area on Wednesday 1/31 just before 1.25" of rain that fell Wednesday afternoon into the evening and all-day Thursday 2/1. Friday 2/2, in between and during another .50" storm, we installed the sod.

Step #8. 6000 square feet of sod installed. We had a bit of time to do some fine grading before sod arrived on Friday AM. The sand base was very firm under foot and there was no standing water due to the new sand base and all of the preparation and drainage that was installed.

And here is the finished product. Despite the tree thinning we did in the area that will ultimately contribute to the area's success, there will still always be some shade issues to contend with. This led us to the choice of sodding with Tahoma 31 Hybrid Bermuda. "In up to 63% shade, Tahoma 31 Hybrid Bermuda is ranked #1 amongst other popular bermudas". We will soon be sodding around the tree on #10 which struggles with shade related issues with Tahoma 31 as well. It should blend very well with our Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda and hopefully show to be a great option and companion for some of our fairway edge areas near trees that struggle particularly in the winter months from shade issues.

In the upcoming weeks we plan to address the area on the other side of the cart path from the area we just addressed on #2. Although the area is somewhat out of play, it gets allot of activity by all skill levels and when we are done, you'll still have trees to navigate but an improved lie and better ability to locate your ball and punch out. More to come.

Thanks for your support!

#5 Drainage Work

The El Nino weather pattern situated out in the pacific has not brought the kind of rain amounts these patterns historically can bring, but it has brought enough rain days and associated cloud cover to keep the course wet since the holidays. So much so that the front left-hand portion of the #5 fairway is so wet that we need to address the situation with surface drainage. And we are in the process of doing so this week. 

It is always better to do this kind of work when it is dry but this section of fairway has gotten so bad we  couldn't ignore it and wait for the weather to change. We started installing over 500' of drainage on Tuesday 1/16/24 the day after the MLK Holiday when we were closed. Wednesday 1/17/24 through Friday 1/19/24 we have the tee markers moved forward the the right hand side of the fairway near the fairway bunker about 160 yards out. Tee markers will be returned to their normal position's on Friday afternoon 1/19/24. The area will continue to be ground under repair as it recovers from the process and the new drainage starts to dry the area out. 

Above is a page from our Master Improvement plan depicting the drainage work currently under way on #5

Here is the beginnings of this work showing sod removed in the drainage pattern, plywood down and  in process trenching of the drain lines. Following steps are to remove the excavated soil, bed the bottom of the trenches with gravel, install 4" perforated drain pipe, fill the drainage ditches with  gravel then replace the sod and topdress with sand.

The drainage explained above will be tied into our sub-surface drainage system which can be identified throughout the course drainage inlets (DI's) depicted above. The subsurface drainage system can then discharge the collected water into this case our irrigation pond. 

Here we are on Thursday afternoon replacing the sod onto the completed drainage pattern.

Fairway Color

We switched our fairway turf from a jumbled mix of cool season turf varieties to a single variety of warm season Santa Anna  hybrid bermuda in 2021 as most everyone who reads these course updates knows. The conversion was made for summer conditions knowing full well the downsides of hybrid bermuda being it goes dormant in the winter. And when hybrid bermuda goes dormant, it stops growing and typically turns brown. We cannot do anything to make the turf grow in the winter, but have been successful in keeping some color to it this year so far. 

This picture of #9 was taken last week on Thursday 1/11/24. Fairway color is pretty good due to our ability to treat the fairways with pigment and iron every other week starting in October. Last year we were unable to keep up that treatment frequency because we measured  over 23" of rain in November - January, and the same time period so far this year we have measured only 5.0"

Here we are applying the pigment / iron mix to the fairways. Turfgrass pigment is different then paint as it works well on plants that still have some chlorophyll, or green color within the tissue. Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda is known for holding onto its color longer into the season and coming out of dormancy sooner they other varieties of hybrid bermuda. This is why I believe the pigment works especially well on the Santa Anna.  

Winter of 2023 vs. Winter of 2024 

In the 50 day period of December 2022 and January 19 2023 we measured 21" of rain transpiring over 27 days (55%). Comparing the same time period this season, we have measured 4.54" happening over 20 days (41%). All of the rain this year has been little 1/10" or maximum 1/4" events with allot of cloudy dreary days between them which makes the golf course just as wet as the large rain events we experienced last season. 

As golfers, I'm certain you follow the weather as closely as we do and know that our current wet conditions are not going to dry out anytime soon. 2.5" forecasted Friday night through Monday.

As wet conditions make for challenging golf, they also make it very challenging to maintain the golf course. I mentioned above the hybrid bermuda fairways are not actively growing, but they still need to get cleaned up from divot and goose remnants, leaves etc., and when it is wet as the course is now we cannot get blowers, sweepers or larger mowers out there. Above depicts us mowing fairways with a smaller, lighter triplex mower to get them cleaned up.

Conclusion

The  2023 Drainage Work that we completed last year has worked well this year but more work needs to be done as evidenced by what we are doing this week on #5 and the current wet conditions that still persist in rainy weather. On a year around golf course in a true transition zone like Granite Bay it is challenging to be good every season of the year, but we'll keep on making the improvements to help us get closer to that goal.

The Best Is Yet To Come ! Thank you for your Support

Driving Range Drainage and Fall & Winter Plans

Now that moat of our fall seeding activities has been completed and the tournament season is coming to a close with Jones Cup this past week, we plan to start working on the many "to do" items on our list. One of these items is some more drainage work, this time on the driving range. There are a few sections of drainage that we need to complete on the range so we are tackling the worst one first.

We actually have "to do" lists and plans. Above is an image of the area of drainage we are currently working on in the driving range. This area is a priority because of erosion along left-hand edge of #2 bunker created by record rainfall last winter. 

We expanded the scope of the drainage pattern depicted above. We got started on Monday 11/6/23 and hope to finish the project with a very early morning crew Tuesday through Friday ahead of members warming up. 

Upcoming Leaf Removal

Leaf removal on the course will be intensified this year compared to recent past fall & winters likely another consequence of the near record rainfall amounts of last season. Deep watering via winter storms for the Native Oaks made them very happy and the warm fall weather we have been experiencing has not given them any reason to shed their leaves yet. Its inevitable though, so get ready for the blowers and sweepers to be part of our daily routines.

Leaf removal will be a big part of our plans for the late fall and early winter as the majority of the trees pictured above  have not lost their leaves as of 11/2/23 when this picture was taken.  Most of the trees pictured above are Blue Oaks and will really start to lose their leaves soon but every year is a bit different as they are holding onto the majority of their leaves into November.

2023 GBGC GCM Fall & Winter Plans 

• Tree Pruning & Brush Clearing - (GBGC Detail Plan)
• #17
• #2
• #18
• #11
• #15 FW
• Nursery Area left of #11
• Drainage Work - (GBGC Master Plan)
• Driving Range
• #18 FW
• #4 FW
• DR
• Irrigation Work - (GBGC Master Plan)
• #9 Rough
• #18 Rough
• #5 Rough
• Leaf Removal - (GBGC Agronomic Plan)
• All Over

The above list are other items on our "to do" list that we hope to work on through the fall and winter season in between sweeping up leaves and normal winter maintenance routines. Our practice has always been to take care of the bulk of our tree pruning and brush clearing in the months where turf growth slows down giving us more free time to tackle these tasks, even in the rain if its safe to do so.

Turkey Cove putting green area will start to see some little changes in the very new future in coordination with planting some "Good Neighbor" screening trees.  We plan to do some work on the green to accommodate some short grass for practicing. Additionally we plan to clean along the back of the green to beautify the area and facilitate mowing and while we in the area,  clean the brush and tree limbs from there all the way to Volcano Ridge behind #17 Green.

The Best Is Yet To Come. Thanks for your Support

2023 Spring Fairway Aeration & Topdressing & Drainage Update #9

Starting next week we will be aerifying and topdressing the new Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda fairways here at GBGC. Last spring, when we conducted this process we did not do alternating back nine &  front nine closures as the membership had just recently started using the course after the 2021 renovation. During our planning processes for 2023 we changed that strategy, providing GCM some alternating closures during the season to conduct these necessary cultural practices. This allows GCM the time to properly and productively get this work done and not inconvenience the golfing membership while doing so.

We have two planned fairway topdressing's and associated cultural activities planned in 2023. The first of which is scheduled for the week of April 10th and the week of April 17th.  The second will be the week of  July 10th and the week of July 17th. Splitting front 9 and back nine operations gives us adequate time to properly complete the work and allows us to get 18 holes open by the end of both weeks so as not to inconvenience membership further. Below is a detailed schedule for the upcoming fairway aeration next week. Pictures and process details will be in the next course update for those who are interested.

This pile of FW topdressing sand represents 160 tons that will be spread on hole #'s 1, 2, 3 & 4. That will amount to 30 tons per acre which is about the maximum we can apply in one application. More details and pictures of actual progress coming next week. 

2023 Drainage Update #9

On Monday April 3rd, GCM started to address the chronic drainage issue on the right hand side of #2 fairway. Any of us who have been around for any length of time know that this area has always had a drainage problem, long before the renovation or turf conversion. The issue is the fairway slopes into a low drainage inlet that is in the afternoon shade of the oak trees. We dident address the shade issue at this time but did provide some additional drainage to get the water off of the fairway surface more rapidly. Pictures below of progress.

Above the crew took advantage of a closed Monday and dug out and installed almost 300' of surface drainage.

Much of the sod in the area needed to be replaced especially around the drainage inlet. Above Enrique and Liborio starting to lay new Santa Anna sod.

The drainage inlet  (DI) in the area, where all of the surface drains were tied into, needed to be raised slightly and soil around it removed and replaced with gravel which is a common practice when we tie in surface drainage to the DI. 

Not the final product, but the completed product after we dug and installed the drains and re-placed the sod  and sand topdressed. The final product awaits the Santa Annas continued awakening, filling in all the sod seams. 

On Thursday 4/6/23 we started addressing another bad drainage issue on the left hand side of #17 where the old sand trap resided, about 115 yards out. The area boasts another bad combo of a depressed water shedding drainage area that is associated with winter shade. This might be the last bit of drainage work we tackle for awhile as the season transitions into spring, and our labor resources are allocated to spring time duties. This is not the last area that needs drainage work, far from it, but we now must move on to more seasonal duties like the above mentioned fairway aeration and topdressing.

Enrique Huerta (right) & Liborio Quintana (left)  had allot of help, but spearheaded this winters seasons drainage work where we installed over 2000  feet of much needed surface drainage on this new golf course. They were much deserved Granite Bay Golf Club's  co-employees of the month in March.

Sunrise at GBGC on 4/6/23. Photo taken by GCM staff member Amanda Bergstrum.