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 Summer Update

 The Spring of 2025 seems to have just flown by and in a couple of weeks we will welcome the official start of the 2025 Summer season with the Summer Solstice on Friday 6/20/25. Before this date we have a couple of big events to prepare for and then afterwards we have some planned turf conversion areas to develop just ahead of our summer fairway aeration week where the golf course will be closed. Below are some pictures highlighting some of what we have been up to in GCM as well as our plans through the first part of the Summer of 25.

Upcoming Summer Golf Course Maintenance Schedule Overview

June 9 through June 22 - Prepare and Host  MacKenzie Cup & California State Amateur

June 23 through July 6 - Prepare select areas on golf course for turf conversion

July 7 through July 11 - Aerify & Sand Topdress Hybrid Bermuda Fairways. Golf Course Closed

GCM Activities Spring of 2025

Springtime is always a busy time on a golf course as everything starts growing at once. One of the things that we've been working on in addition to mow, mow, mow is adding more sand to our bunkers. Adding a little sand to bunkers here and there is a normal maintenance function, however our bunkers needed some substantial sand refreshing since the 2021 renovation and we are just about finished.

Our driving range mats are scheduled for replacement on Tuesday 6/10/25. Invited Clubs has switched golf mat vendors to Fiberbuilt Golf. Predictably our concrete pad was to narrow by a few inches to accommodate the new Fiberbuilt Mats, so we had to add some concrete to existing pad. 

Our strategy of late has been to lay off projects Spring through the first part of Fall and concentrate our efforts on course maintenance but we couldn't help ourselves and installed a block of sprinklers along the rough edge on the left-hand side of #12 in May.

I've been mentioning this irrigation work ad nauseum because it is the infrastructure improvement that has been proven time and time again to produce the greatest results on this property. Any opportunity we have to check one of these areas off our Master Plan we will typically move on it even though the timing was not part of our overall spring through summer plan.

This is the rough between #15 & #13. If you can recall what this rough used to be like and what it is like today, it is because we now have supplemental irrigation heads surrounding it which has improved irrigation coverage and control allowing us to maintain cool season rough right next to warm season fairway turf facilitating the very different irrigation needs of both areas.  

We have deep spiked / aerified the greens along with associated sand topdressing a couple of times since the beginning of spring and the process is helping with rooting and firming of the greens and has kept with the small hole but frequent cultural practice strategy on our greens. Here Enrique is using a Vertidrain Aerator to spike 1/4" holes 8" deep into the surface.

GCM Planned Activities Summer of 2025

Part of our Master Plan is to convert some chronically bad areas on the golf course from cool season turf to warm season Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda to facilitate cart traffic in certain entrances and exits on the course. These are areas that are adjacent to warm season turf that have never been right.

Hybrid Bermuda can only be established vegetatively or by live plant sprigs or sod. There is no seed for hybrid bermuda. We have a couple of weeks before we aerate the fairways after the Mac Cup and the CA State Amateur. Using the fresh cores from the fairway aeration process will be great way to establish hybrid bermuda, we just have to prepare the areas beforehand. 

Above is the drive off area of #13, a chronically bad traffic pinch-point. Our plan is to strip this area, condition the existing native soil with sand and compost, compact and grade then cover with fresh aeration cores. This has to be done in the summer when hybrid bermuda is actively growing. More details to come on this great opportunity to improve some chronically bad areas. 

Another area we plan to address with aeration cores is the narrow strip of rough along the cart path on #9.

Above is an area we plan to address with aeration cores as well.  It is the drive on to the fairway #12. Another area we will address which is not pictured is the drive on to #15 right after you cross the bridge.

Another part of our summer re-grassing strategy is to prepare a few select small areas for seeding in the early fall which require some weed eradication first.  The above photo is of Dallisgrass, a notoriously difficult perennial weed to control selectively, or by using a product that will kill the dallisgrass and not the desirable turf. It can overwhelm an area to the point where a scorched earth tactic is the most appropriate way to eradicate it. 

Dallisgrass is a perennial weed that goes dormant in the winter then comes back with a vengeance in the summer by way of a very robust root system. To eradicate the weed for good you have to kill the root system so multiple treatments are recommended so the areas we plan to address will remain bare until we seed them in late summer - early fall.

This area behind #15 tees is out of play and completely infiltrated with dallisgrass. We plan to treat this area  multiple times and afterwards seed with Tall Fescue in the late summer. Other areas we plan to address in this manner are the back slope behind #1 green and the left hand rough of #12 near the pond. All of these areas have a substantial amount of dallisgrass infestation that needs to be eradicated.

Getting Through the Summer of 2025

How Members Can Help

This is the left hand rough edge of #16 and it highlights one of the main challenges Granite Bay faces in the summer post 2021 renovation. We converted half of our golf course to Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda and the rough remained primarily a blend of cool season turf grass varieties because of the shade issues associated with our tree lined holes.  These cool season turf areas are very susceptible to the heat of the Granite Bay summers.

How can you help? The best way to help the course in the summer when operating a golf cart is entering and exiting though the gates and drive exclusively on the short cut fairway turf avoiding  the rough with cart traffic.

To protect the rough, we do plan to close a few holes at a time to cart traffic during the summer months. 

Additionally, you will notice some soaker sprinklers in areas that a bit stressed. We haven't experienced any mishaps with carts tangling up or running over these hose stands yet so thank you. 

Something to note is that the areas you notice these hose stands are areas that are outlined in our Granite Bay Golf Course Master Improvement Plan so one day there wont be such a need for hose-stands or as many cart restrictions in the summer.

Back to this image of the rough between #13 & #15. This is the goal for the entire course. Healthy cool season rough with its irrigation needs being met coexisting right next warm season fairway turf with it distinctively different irrigation needs being met. We are not that far away.

Thanks for your support!

2024 Fairway Aeration & The Dog Days of Summer

 

Remember !

Golf Course Fairway Aeration 
Monday July 8th through Friday July 12th

Golf Course Closed

We are going to take a full week to aerify and sand topdress the warm season hybrid bermuda fairways rather than stretching it out with F9 & B9 closures over a few weeks creating varying levels of recovery and consistency for the Members. A course update on progress and process will be posted early in the week to keep interested Members informed. During the golf course closure, the Driving Range and Practice Greens will be open for Member's as well as Tilley's Pub & Mackenzie Grille.

The "Dog Days of Summer" are traditionally the 40 days in front part of summer from July 3rd to August 11th coinciding with dawn rising of the  Dog Star, Sirius. 

The official start of Summer marked by the Summer Solstice was  on Thursday June 20th beginning  the 94 day period of Summer leading to the  Fall Equinox on Sunday September 22nd where the hours of daylight equal the hours of night. We have stated on many occasions that the summer months have traditionally been the hardest season on this golf course and most of our preparations throughout the year are aimed at surviving it. 

But since the 2021 renovation / turf conversion we have reduced the stressful part of the Summer by 40% by converting our fairways to Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda. However the golf course is still 60% cool season turf in the rough which is susceptible to these Sacramento summers. 

We have been adding Tall Fescue to the rough because of its superior heat tolerance to ryegrass, but it is still a cool season variety and therefore susceptible to summer heat and the soil drying associated with it.  As a reminder, hybrid bermuda does not do well in the shade of our tree lined fairways and therefore the best options for much of the rough are the cool season varieties of turf which can handle shade much more efficiently yet can still struggle to handle the heat of summers, especially when the soil get dry and hard.

But even though summer has always been hard on Granite Bay there is much to be excited about. The examples of continued irrigation infrastructure improvements like the right hand side #13 rough, left hand side #10 rough and right hand side of #5 rough to name a few have made a big difference in turf quality in these areas even in the summer.  These completed improvements stand as proof that our plan to improve irrigation coverage for the cool season rough independent of the warm season fairways will put the finishing touches on the renovation of 2021 and mitigate much of the summer threat in the future. 

Enjoy some pictures below of recent activity on the course. 

Some new brush additions to our Fairway mowers we very recently started using. These brushes are called Transformer Brushes and they are very popular for grooming grain out of turf surfaces. We started brushing fairways this spring remove allot of the winter grain in them. We started with our small soft brushes then purchased a new large stiff brush that we brushed ahead of the fairway mowers. With these new brushes we will be standing up the leaf surface ahead of cutting every time we mow promoting new small plants and a dense surface. Again, we have just started with these brushes and predict they will be key in getting these surfaces better and better. 

Nice view after the first use of the Transformer Brushes on #8

This density and surface will just keep getting better and better with prolonged brushing.

Looks like we all have a heatwave to contend with on the very near horizon. These are the times that can test this golf courses soul. What can you do to help? First, recognize that cart traffic is most damaging when it gets hot like this, especially to the cool season rough turf that surrounds our fairways. Secondly enter and exit through the gates on golf holes that are open to cart traffic and drive exclusively on the more durable warm season fairway turf. Thirdly, respect the soaker sprinklers we have going on a few places on the course as well as the rotating cart path only holes designated by signs along the path. If you land in the area with the soaker sprinkler operating, treat it as GUR (ground under repair) and move your ball. 

Above we mentioned the success of improving irrigation coverage giving us the ability to keep the fairway drier and keep the soil adequately hydrated to support cool season turf, particularly on these sun-baked slope's like along the cart path on #12. We haven't addressed this area yet with enhanced irrigation and the entire cart path edge of #12 is high on our list to do so.  In the meantime during the summer months we will employ these lines of soaker sprinklers to keep these areas alive. Again, please treat the area as GUR when you encounter them.

This picture doesn't represent the entire Swan family as the Cygnets are now a big enough for their parents to allow them to roam a bit. We started off with seven babies and now have four. 

And they are now almost the size of an adult goose. 

 

Summer is Coming

It is only 27 days until the official start of Summer marked by the Summer Solstice on Thursday June 20th. This begins the 94 day period leading to the  Fall Equinox on Sunday September 22nd where the hours of daylight equal the hours of night. The Summer season has traditionally been the hardest season on this golf course and most of our preparations and efforts throughout the year are aimed at surviving it. 

Our 2021 renovation / turf conversion addressed in part our summer issues by converting our fairways to warm season hybrid bermuda, however the golf course is still 60% cool season turf in the rough which is susceptible to these Sacramento summers. We have been adding Tall Fescue to the rough because of its superior heat tolerance to ryegrass, but it is still a cool season variety and therefore doesn't thrive when it gets hot.  As a reminder, hybrid bermuda does not do well in the shade and with our tree lined Parkland Style Golf Course and its associated shade, the best options for the rough are the cool season varieties of turf. 

So summer is coming but we feel good about our preparations and the condition of the golf course going into this stressful period. First, we are not worried about 40% of the golf course, specifically the fairways as they will thrive in the summer heat. Secondly, we have a strong population of the hardier Tall Fescue that has been established over the last three years and thirdly we successfully core aerated all of the rough in the early spring and we are counting on big dividends from that process.

How you can help is minimizing cart traffic in the rough during the summer. Utilize cart paths when you can and enter golf holes through the gates then drive on the durable fairway turf until you exit the hole through the exit gates. Currently we do not have any holes designated cart path only but anticipate closing a couple holes at a time in the summer to mitigate the wear and tear of cart traffic, so respecting those closures when we do have them is also helpful. 

Thank you in advance for your help with this matter. We all want the same thing, a golf course that we can be proud of year-round. Below are some pictures of recent progress on the golf course.

Last week we finally got to fixing a nagging low spot that was left over from the 2021 renovation to the left of the new forward tee on #2. Prior to us starting to sod this area it was a lovely puddle of mud.

We decided to do a sump drain because our normal recourse of tapping into existing drainage was a much larger job then we wanted to tackle at the time. A sump drain is a big hole filled with rock. The vertical drainpipe in the picture will serve as an inspection hole where we can monitor the depth of the drainage water at any given time. Additionally, the pipe will be helpful during rainy weather as the area is still low and might need to be pumped. 

Above is the finished product. No more mud hole.

We recently purchased a large fairway drag brush that we have been using ahead of fairway mowers to remove the grain in our Santa Anna Hybrid Bermuda fairways. This brushing has really tightened these fairways up. 

This week we started repairing some of the bad areas along cart paths primarily. The process is strip the area of what bad sod is left then rototill sand and compost into existing native soil conditioning the soil so it has a fighting chance of supporting new sod. 

After to soil preparation, grading and tamping, we add some fertilizer, re-sod with fresh sod from our nursery then irrigate and rope off  to cart traffic so new sod can establish. We addressed areas near #3 green, #16 green & #6 green this week.

This picture was taken Friday 5/24/24. All seven Cygnets still flourishing at about 5 weeks old. The Family move regularly from pond to pond now, and one of the parents has been spotted on multiple occasions flying around low and looking for I don't know what.

A postcard image taken by Meredith of the same Swans and Cygnets this morning, Friday 5/24/24. 

Seeding The Rough

The cool season turf in our roughs has thinned and struggled in many areas of the course this summer, which is nothing new, but nonetheless disappointing. Our 2021 renovation didn't address the rough other then turning off the irrigation for months and driving on them with heavy equipment. Irrigation of the rough resumed in phases as we started watering fairway sprigs which revived some of the sturdiest rough turf like common bermuda. However much of the bare earth sprouted weeds such as Common Purslane which we never combatted here before 2021 and continue to combat into 2023.

Common Purslane at GBGC.
"All parts are edible. It has a slightly salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe, North Africa, The Middle East, Asia & Mexico."
(wikipedia - portulaca oleracea).
GCM staff uses it in salads. Our current strategy is to hand pull the areas where we have heavy infestation. Yours truly has been therapeutically leading the charge on removal, and been getting 10 to 20 gallons per day for the past couple weeks although I haven't tried it in my salad.

When fall of 2021 finally arrived and we reopened the course from renovating, we were in the process   of seeding the rough with Tall Fescue and followed up that seeding with another in the fall of 2022. The choice of Tall Fescue, a hardier cool season turf, was made because of the treelined style of our course and associated shade which the new hybrid bermuda fairway turf would not be able to thrive in, and the cool season fescue could.  Our strategy and hope was that by just getting this hardier and more heat tolerant Tall Fescue established in the rough, we would solve many of our issues. Nothing like a Granite Bay summer to produce a reality check. Heat and difficult soil is a bad combination and cool season turf is still cool season turf, and will now and  always be the weak link at Granite Bay in the summer. If we do not do the right things in the right season to our cool season rough such as  core aeration in the spring, we are likely to experience the same results. We have much more to do, but first things first. Recovery.

We are getting started with seeding into our rough a little early this year.  Typically, we wait until the weather cools down near or after the fall equinox on 9/23/23 to start seeding, but we wanted to get started earlier to hasten recovery in the thin areas of our rough. This is also due to the hardiness of the tall fescue variety we are trying to convert our roughs to. Our observations are that it comes up quickly but takes some time to establish so we hope that the warmer weather of late summer early fall will help with this establishment. It's a bit of a gamble, as there is still summer to be had, and our soil temperatures are a little higher than ideal for Fescue germination, but fingers crossed we could be on our way to recovery by the equinox. 

Triwave Seeder seeding  thinned out rough on #12 the morning of Thursday 8/24/23.

The great thing about the Triwave Seeder is that it is minimally invasive to the existing stand of turf  which is ideal as the plants that have survived summer will and are starting to thrive with shorter days and cooler nights and will be apart of the recovering turf stand. 

Closeup of the slicing of the Triwave Seeder through existing turf and the little to no damage created by the seeder.

Cart Restrictions Return

We have not had any cart path restrictions since June purposely so The Membership could fully enjoy the golf course this summer. As we start to seed, we will have to return to  cart restrictions on certain holes to keep cart traffic from hindering new seed germination and establishment. We will close the individual holes utilizing the hole closed signs. On holes that have not been closed we plan to vigorously promote the use of the entrance & exit gates and  driving exclusively on fairways as the  fairway turf can handle the traffic and the newly seeded rough cannot. Many members are already following this protocol, so a push to get even further compliance will pay dividends in the recovery of our cool season rough. 

Holes closed during seeding will be identified in AM e-mail communication from the golf shop as well as our cart path only signs.

Original overhead description of utilizing the gates to both enter and exit the hole and drive exclusively on the fairway turf  while our rough is recovering this late summer through the fall.

Non-Negotiable Rough Aeration

Its easy to neglect the rough in the springtime when there is a myriad of things to do on the golf course and the rough seems pretty good. And springtime core aerating and culturing is very time consuming and typically hindered by weather, so the job stretches out. But summer is coming, and the reality is that the springtime aeration and cultural practices to the rough as well as some irrigation infrastructure improvements are essential to mitigating cool season turf losses and mediocrity of our rough in the summer. Non-negotiable aeration doesn't mean we have to close the golf course, just limit cart traffic on the holes we are working on, a few holes at a time. More importantly it means that it must be done no matter how many projects we have on our plate. GCM can do multiple things at a time, but moving forward, putting off or skipping springtime core aeration of our rough has to be a non-negotiable. 

Refreshing Bunker Sand

We started some Bunker Sand Refreshing back in May and have picked up where we left off targeting the completion of the greenside bunkers. We still have to re-fresh sand in  the greensides on #2, #14, #15 & #17. The timing of the refreshing has been somewhat contingent on sand delivery which is coming all the way from Idaho. Below are some pictures of recent progress.

White gold in the parking lot.

Adding new sand to rear bunker on #15.

Spreading the new sand on #17.

Tire packing the sand in #15 with a sand pro.

Conclusion

I've said it before that golf courses are a dynamic, living and breathing thing that we play a game on. Summers come and summers go yet they always leave a mark on most to all of our regional golf courses in one degree or another,  and likely always will. I've experienced 15 of them here at Granite Bay and we are no exception. But I still believe that the best summers are yet to come for Granite Bay and I couldn't have said that before 2021. Onward, Forward.

Thank You For Your Support