News and Notes

I have too many items to discuss to make each one it's own post, plus there is more drilling updates to be had.  So, here is set of pics and updates for a variety of course work.

First off, we have new divot sand.  You may have seen some darker sand on the range and perhaps in your divot bottles.  The new sand is an 80% sand 20% organic material mix.  The organics will help with seed germination and provide a bit of fertility for divots to heal.  I also believe that this sand will compact better than the previously used sands to improve footing and stability on the range tee.  Let me know what you think about the new sand.  So far, the crew and I are enjoying what we've seen.

Next topic.  We had to rent a backhoe as part of the drilling operation.  We decided to make the most of the "big" machinery while it's on site.  We've ripped a couple of dead trees out of the ground, leveled our debris pile behind #12, removed an old stump next to the lake on #9, and today we removed all dead oleanders from the parking lot.  Like the stump on #9, the oleanders were driving me crazy.  They are fine plants when healthy, but ours are diseased with Pierce's Disease, as are many in San Diego County.  We will be updating the irrigation and replacing these plants with something more attractive in the near future.  Like many of our projects, parking lot work is generally limited to Mondays.

Lastly, the new pine straw bed on #2 is open to play.  Hopefully, there will be very little play coming out of this area, but it is playable if your ball comes to lie there.  This project removed a seldom used bunker from the course which reduces labor and input costs.  It also took two sprinkler heads out of service and changed two others to half circle heads.  I've tossed many golf balls at every angle and speed into the pine straw and all of them were very easy to find, usually right on top.  In the future we may add some other plants or grasses to this new water free landscape to further improve aesthetics.