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.

Planned Santa Anna Expansion

Last week as planned, we started preparation for expanding our Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda in some high traffic areas on the golf course adjacent to the cart paths. These areas include the left-hand side of #8 near the green, the right-hand side of #9 middle of the fairway, the right-hand side of #12 near the concrete bridge, the left-hand side #12 near the path entrance to the restrooms, the left-hand side #13 where all of the cart path traffic exits and finally the left-hand entrance area to the fairway on #15 after crossing the shared #15 & #16 bridge.

Our previous course update described the process of us stripping the old sod in these areas followed by conditioning the soil by adding sand and rototilling the compacted soil existing in these areas. These six areas totaled about a half an acre in size and will be re-grassed utilizing the cores from our upcoming fairway aeration starting the week of July 7th. Below are pictures of the process for all who are interested.

Step #1 is to remove all of the battered sod in the individual areas. We use a sod cutter to make strips of sod so we can easily pile up and remove with an excavator or front-end loader.

Removing and finding a home for all of this old sod is strategic as too far of a haul would add to the length of the job and we were under a hard deadline of getting the areas stripped and prepped prior to fairway aeration. We gave ourselves a couple of weeks for preparation and that ended up being about right as we stripped the sod last week and are preparing the soil this week, while setting up and maintaining the golf course for Member play.

The areas on #8 & #9 we hauled around #9 fairway to the pond edge near the new as of 2021 fairway bunker on the left. The addition of this bunker created a tricky maintenance scenario along the water's edge that needed some expansion to make it right. Above we are compacting the sod and soil placed there that was removed for #8 & #9

Above is the #13 cart exit area which has always been some of the worst turf on this golf course because all of the cart traffic exiting the fairway near the green to the left, a classic golf course pinch-point. In 2009 during a bunker renovation, we hauled tons of old bunker sand into the area to improve the grade and soil conditions which made the area better but still didn't solve the problem. 

Part of the problem on #13 is it's a very small area to concentrate all of the cart traffic and we don't have enough square footage to spread it out. If you remember there used to be a much larger rock at the end of the cart path curb that was removed during renovation in 2021. Unfortunately, there were some smaller, at least on the surface, rocks that remained that were now an obstruction to softening the grade to facilitate more exit areas. We were going to dig around them so we could jackhammer off the tops and re-grade, but once Enrique started digging, he was able to extract some of the rocks and move the other side of the cart path. The rock pictured above however was too big to extract for our equipment, so he kept digging and was able to push it into its own hole and bury it with dirt allowing us to re-grade and soften this area creating more exit spaces.

Above is a good look at the rock before Enrique pushes it on its side into the hole.

Our next step after stripping all of the sod off of all of the areas was to condition the soil prior to
re-grassing. Part of the reason these areas struggled with traffic was the underlying decomposed granite soil that the turf was trying to grow in. Here we are rototilling the area near #8 after we added sand.

The tractor mounted rototiller can't maneuver in the tight spots or edges, so we utilized our walk behind rototiller in these narrow areas.

This is the alternate exit on the left-hand side of #12 after stripping and before soil preparation with the rototillers. It's a good example of the shape we plan to re-grass with Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda in these carved out traffic areas. We plan to mow it at fairway height providing a smooth exit transition off of the fairway and onto the cart paths. The hybrid bermuda will be much more durable than the cool season turf blend that was there prior, especially in the spring, summer and fall where the course receives the vast majority of its traffic.

We will post another update soon, showing the grading and re-grassing of these areas.

Thanks for your support!

The Dog Days of Summer 2023

 

Here we are again, The Dog Days of Summer at Granite Bay. The "Dog Days", as the ancient Romans called this period of time, was not about the weather being unfit for a dog, but an astrological event where the Sirius "Dog Star" and associated constellation rises with the sun for 40 day's in early July through mid August. The ancients believed the extra heat experienced during this stretch was the combination  of  heat produced by The Dog Star and The Sun's close proximity. But science tells us the dog days are the result of the earths tilt in the Northern Hemisphere related to the sun, where the angle of the suns rays hit our part of the world more directly,  and for a longer period of time. 

The Dog Days and summer in general have always taken its toll on GBGC, but if one is to be fair and search ones memory of past summers here, you would have to come to the conclusion that we are better in the summer now since we converted fairways to Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda. However since our cool season rough encompasses more of the golf course then our new warm season fairways, we are still susceptible to summer heat and 2023 is no exception. 

Collar Sod Replacement

One of the areas on the course that did take a hit this summer was some of our collar sod. Whether it struggled, thinned and in some cases died from any combination of heat, bad soil, lack of moisture, too much moisture, vehicle and foot traffic, bad luck, it ended up dead. And no amount of seeding will bring it back quick enough, so we are in process of re-sodding portions of the collars.

GCM staff re-sodding walk-up collar on #3.

There are some challenges with re-sodding parts of  our collars. During 2021 construction, a tall fescue blend of sod was chosen as the collar sod to hold back the encroaching Santa Anna into the newly seeded greens which was a real issue at the time. Tall Fescue was chosen for its heat tolerance, and it is, despite our current losses,  more heat tolerant then other choices such as ryegrass. However tall fescue sod  is not commercially produced at the lower heights of cut that we maintain our collars at, so we have to install the taller sod 1/2" deep and sand topdress the difference so when we eventually mow the sod down to match our current collar's level, we dont mow the Turfgrass Crown of the individual grass plants that make up the new sod and kill them. Therefore we have to slowly  bring the height of cut down as the new sod roots into the soil  as well as continue to topdress the aforementioned 1/2" gap. This will take some time so the new sodded areas will be painted as GUR so golfers can get relief from the taller replaced collar sod.

Completed collar replacement will be marked GUR for awhile as it roots down and establishes. 

Recent Drainage Installation

Our recent fairway aeration and topdressing in late July exposed some fairway drainage work, that although we knew existed, we believed  necessary to repair sooner rather then later. Therefore shortly after aeration we installed 100' of surface drainage in #15 in one location  and almost 500' on three separate locations on #9. We still have more topdressing to do to smooth these areas out and will continue to do so until the areas blend with existing fairway turf. 

GCM staff installing surface drainage on #9 FW.

Shortly after installation. The work is serving its purpose moving water off of a low areas in the fairway. Subsequent topdressing's and sod establishment will rapidly make tis go away at this time of the year as hybrid bermuda loves the heat.

Minks Getting Established

Mink sightings on the course are becoming more and more numerous. Michele McCormick, frequents the course on closed Mondays capturing nature through her spectacular photography. On a recent Monday she got the below shot of a Mink swimming in the pond between #1 and #9. Recent sightings by GCM staff included a small family of four minks sticking their heads up through the rocks in front of #3 green as well as numerous sightings of them running along those rocks, and another chasing a goose off of #10 fairway early in the morning. They could have had something to do with our missing baby swans and perhaps are another reason why geese are not overnighting on our ponds. Additionally, and this is just an anecdotal observation on my part, but I dont notice as many ground squirrels around. As is all things related to nature, be carful what you wish for, but if the Minks establishment help keep the geese and ground squirrels in check, we might have a good thing going.

Great capture of a Mink swimming in #1 & #9 ponds.

Another great shot of a Hawk and a Lizard

Pond Windows - A Work In Progress

Last season we purchased a piece of equipment called a Ventrac. The Ventrac is a very versatile piece of equipment with numerous applications and attachments that was purchased to replace an old rough mower we used to mow what we refer to as "native areas". These "native areas", like the banks of the pond on #1 & #9, the section of rough between #14 green & #15 tee's, are areas that prior to the purchase of the new Ventrac, were mowed with older rough mowers that had now been retired to native mowing, as these areas are typically very rough and rock & stump ridden.

Enrique mowing with the Ventrac along the steep pond edge on #3

When we first took it out and mowed the pond banks on #1 & #9 we found out just how versatile  the tractor really was. It allowed us to cut back years of encroaching vegetation including aquatic bulrush and cattail's. In doing so we opened up "windows" on both pond edges which we now plan to enhance and maintain.

We always knew these banks were not properly irrigated to sustain desirable turfgrass and had been on our irrigation expansion list for quite some time. However the old vegetation obscured the banks from view of the clubhouse or restaurant so irrigation expansion in the area maintained a B to C level of priority. Now that the area's had been opened up, this irrigation expansion rose to an A level priority because,  first things first, we need adequate irrigation coverage to have good turfgrass and these areas are very visible and exposed.

GBGC installing adequate irrigation to pond edges on #1 & #9 earlier this year 

New irrigation in operation on #1 pond bank.

Once the irrigation was installed and in use, it became obvious that for this change to be truly successful we would need to eradicate the weeds prior to seeding, in particular the nasty Dallasgrass infestation, which was the dominant weed species on these pond banks. Dallasgrass is very difficult to eradicate as it is a perennial weed that need's eradication from the leaves and stems all the way down to the roots or it will just come back.

A dallasgrass plant that escaped recent treatment on the pond bank of #9. You recognize it now dont you! This stuff is nasty and almost impossible to play golf out of. 

 # 9 bank in its current state after a few treatments to eradicate the dallasgrass. 

We still have some weed eradication to do and some minor grading work near the new left-hand fairway bunker on #9. Again to be totally successful, we really need to eradicate all the weeds, especially the dallasgrass.  This like everything else we are trying to wrap up on the course takes time.

I think we are all going to enjoy the aesthetics of this project when complete. It might even keep balls from traveling into the pond. Time will tell. We just wanted to let everyone know what's going on over there.

The Project 2021 - Update #12

 Grassing Begins

"After obtaining a clean seed bed, the greatest preventive of weeds and clover is, - with the aid of  sun, water, fertilizers and suitable seed, -to bring up such a rapid growth of turf  that there is now room for weeds to exist." (The Spirit of Saint Andrews - p.197 Alister MacKenzie)

Forty four day's into our major turf renovation, we started to get some sod installed. Getting started on the sodding for the green surrounds and complexes is essential as we need to get the greens seeded ASAP so they will be ready for play in September. Sodding around the greens prior to seeding the actual putting surfaces themselves is important because once the greens are seeded the amount of irrigation necessary to grow-in the new seedlings  will make the adjacent bare soil too wet to work on and vulnerable to erosion. Our goal is to have six greens ready for seeding by mid-April. We will have greens 1,2,4,8,5 & 11 ready by that goal.

When it comes to actual grassing strategies of the green surrounds we have to take into consideration the diverse environments that our green surrounds inhabit. Some green complexes are in the full sun during the day most of the year, and some receive only afternoon sun spring through fall, and receive hardly any sunlight in the winter months. Therefore different grassing strategies will be incorporated for different green surrounds.

It has been well established that we will be using Santa Ana Hybrid Bermuda in our fairways as well as parts of the green surrounds that are in the full sun. The turf we plan to use in the rough and tying into bunker edges is Tall Fescue. Tall Fescue is moving in a different direction then  perennial ryegrass which was what the course was primarily seeded and recovered with for decades. Tall Fescue is more heat tolerant then perennial ryegrass and consequently its popularity in the golf market has soared. Our plan is to incorporate more tall fescue in our current rough as well during the renovation, tying in the new sod with our current rough. 

Below are some pictures and narrative of new sod and progress this past week. 

New Bunker on #1 surrounded by new tall fescue sod installed last week

Different view of the same bunker with newly sodded Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda in the approach. 

#4 green with new bunker to the right surrounded by newly sodded Tall Fescue and to the right newly sodded Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda. Here is an example of more work that needs to be completed with the next sod install and ty-in work that need to be accomplished with seeding or re-sodding in the future. Again the big push is to get most of the sod around the greens in place so the greens can be seeded and irrigated without eroding the banks and surrounds of the green. 

This pictures shows the new view of the #4 green 150 yards out from the middle of the fairway. The fairway bunker on the left 110 yards out has been removed and a new smaller version shaped in it's place farther to the left. Its hard to see at the moment buts its rough-shape is there. Opening up sight lines is an important design concept for Jay Abbott & Sal Rodriguez. Prior to taking the back edge and land form from the back  of the old bunker and pushing it into the bottom of that old, deep bunker, one could not see the front edge or reach of the right-hand greenside bunker or the entire front edge of the putting surface as they were hidden by the flashing face and landform of the old bunker. All of the irrigation had to be peeled back along with the irrigation control wires but I wanted to show the attention to detail of the design concepts that are being employed here and the extent we are going to accomplish these goals. We would have created a better view it it were not for a 6" water mainline that would have be disrupted by cutting the ridge down further.  I wish I would have taken a before picture of this view as a comparison.  

West Coast Turf installing big roll  Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda in the approach of #1

The above picture shows we have left a gap in sod to facilitate the completion of the Better Billy Bunker Liner as well as the installation of the Idaho White bunker sand. Completion of the bunker was not going to hold up sodding which again was necessary to get the green seeded. These areas obviously will be sodded after those tasks are completed.