Course Condition Update: Fairways

#5 fairway

I'll start by saying that the fairways at Bernardo Heights are in the best condition they've been for a long time. Gone are the clumps of ryegrass from many years of overseeding that hung around summer after summer, creating tough lies and poor looks. Over the last few years, we've sprayed out nearly all of this rye grass. That was step number one. Late last summer, we were still spraying holes 1, 13, and 15. All three of these have filled in nicely besides a few sections that have other problems.


These fairways have a host of problems that the staff are working to overcome. The main issue was the wrong type of grass, which has now been corrected. Another obstacle is the sodium found in our well water. This is causing the majority of the thin spots on holes 13, 15, and 18. You can see the sodium quite easily when it wicks to the top of the profile.

Sodium at surface of #18 fairway

The dark green stripes are drain lines where the sodium can leach out of the soil. Unfortunately, the native soil is so thick that the drain line has little affect just outside of the drain itself. We have no choice but to sod these locations and have been doing so 1500 square feet at a time. This is as much as our staff can handle and install before it burns up in the summer heat. We have already replaced over 6000 sq feet of bermuda sod this year, most of it in traffic zones and fairways. I ordered more today for next week.


I'm happy to say that the major trouble locations are limited. We have a great stand of bermuda out there that is filling it very well with the first full summer of good growing. Last year, only a few fairways were already clear of ryegrass and they had to endure a 5 month construction program that required heavy traffic, intermittent irrigation, and an unusually cool August. This year, warm temperatures just showed up a few days ago and the change is certainly noticeable.

#6 fairway

#1 fairway

Young bermuda in the  sections that were  previously thick with ryegrass, are being treated as a grow-in, getting bi-weekly shots of fertilizer. Wetting agents, which make the most of our precious irrigation source, are being applied monthly. It's expensive, but an increased budget is making this possible. We are spot aerifying where necessary and sodding any areas that do not show progress. 

#11 fairway

#8 fairway

The hard working staff will continue to improve the fairways and the entire course every single day. This course hardly resembles itself compared to 3 years ago. We have 12,000 new plants, 35 less acres of turf, bermuda fairways, bermuda tees, and greens that are healthy and rolling beautifully. We can always make it better and we will, one day at a time.

#14 fairway

Bunker Renovation is Complete

Conditions are improving at a rapid pace. Every bunker on the course has now been renovated with proper sub-surface shaping, new drainage, and new sand. The bermudagrass is waking up, the cool season turf is fading away, and our new drought-tolerant landscape is starting to pop with color.  

We've turned our attention to cart path repairs and spreading out some new mulch.  Green aerification went well and tees are up next, this coming Monday. After a long winter, the crew is anxious to get back to converting this course to dense, excellent bermudagrass.  

Below is our before/after shot of the left green side bunker on the 10th hole. There was nearly 2 feet of compacted, old sand in this bunker. Now there is 6 inches of firm, new sand that is consistent and drains well. I hope you enjoy the change as much as I do!!

Bunker Renovation

Our friends from United GLI are back on site to continue with bunker renovation.  We will be finishing all greenside and fairway bunkers throughout the course, a total of 28 bunkers remaining from our previous renovations.  So far, 11 of the 28 bunkers are fully completed with new edges, sand, and most importantly, drainage.

Bunkers need sand replaced every 5-7 years because of contamination.  Soil from trimming edges, dust from winds, and washouts from rain can bring silt and clay into the sand.  Eventually the bunker will turn into concrete.  Adding a few inches of sand every year is not a solution to this problem.  The common saying, "there is no sand in the bunkers" is not correct.  There is way too much sand in these bunkers and it is all old, contaminated, and unplayable.

The most important component of a bunker, and maybe an entire golf course, is proper drainage.  When water does not leave the bunker and forms a lake, all the silt rises to the top and contaminates the sand.  This is the beginning of the end for good, playable bunkers. Covering the contaminated sand with fresh, expensive sand will only result in deeper, useless sand.

So, it should be no surprise that the #1 goal of this renovation is to install proper drainage in all the bunkers. We are checking and double-checking all drain outlets to make sure they have proper fall and are not clogged or damaged.  Yesterday, the BHCC staff installed a new stretch of outlet drainage from the fairway bunker on #2, across the fairway to an existing drain.  The previous outlet fell into a gravel bed which did not allow for effective drainage.  Other drainage problems we have encountered include crushed pipes, tree root clogs, improper slopes, and high spots that cause water to back up. We are being very careful to get this drainage installed just right.

Another priority with this renovation is returning bunker edges closer to the original design.  Of course, the original might not always make sense, so we are making some adjustments to fit our players and the bunker's location.  For instance, on the fairway bunker on the par 5, 4th hole, we eliminated a lobe of the bunker that pinned the golfer behind trees.  You're already in trouble, so why make it that much harder?  Also, we are raising some floors and lowering some lips to provide a better view and a more reasonable shot.  Many bunker faces, especially in the fairways, have grown much larger than originally intended.  We are cutting these back and expanding the view of the course.

Finally, I'm sure you noticed the nice brown sod we are laying around the bunkers.  We do not want to introduce more Rye grass that I will have to kill in a few months.  The dormant bermuda sod will root down and green up in a few weeks, matching our end goal of solid bermuda coverage.

Thank you for your patience during this construction period.  More improvements are on the way!!

El Niño Cleanup

A few weeks ago, Bernardo Heights Country Club recorded 4.35" of rain over a 72 hour period.  Much of that rain came down in a few short hours and made quite a mess throughout the golf course.  Our average annual rainfall is just over 10 inches, so collecting over a third of that amount in three days created some problems for the entire region.

January 8th,  #7 Fairway after 4.3 inches of rain

There is some good news, of course.  The mulch zones faired very well and require little cleanup.  Also, the greens received the flush of salts we've been waiting for since last winter.  We have been flushing the greens with well water into the first week of December to try to buy time until the rain started to fall.  The sodium is now back to manageable levels and should stay that way until mid-summer when we will have to start the flushing process once again.

January 20th, #7 Fairway

Our cleanup duties will continue for the next couple of weeks and I am very pleased with the efforts of our staff, working day in and day out with sore backs and shovels in hand.  Our first point of attention was cleaning the cartpaths from mud and sand so golfers could get around safely.  We then turned to bunker repair and completed that task in a week's time.

A few fairways became rivers during the storm after large drains were plugged with debris.  We have examined each drainage location and installed barriers to protect the drains from future problems.  The fairways that took on some sand are not severely damaged, just consider this an unscheduled topdressing.  We will continue to clean them and encourage the grass to peak through.  You can see how much better they are two weeks after the storm. 

New French drains on #5

We are now turning our attention towards the decomposed granite areas that need the sand redistributed and raked.  Nothing is broken out there, it just needs to be cleaned up.  We'll go spot by spot and day by day to get everything back in order. 

We will continue adding drainage wherever it is needed and I suspect we'll never run out of locations that could use more drainage.  We also will work with some soil stabilizers in areas we expect channels of water to form to prevent new erosion.

A little cleanup is to be expected every winter and a storm of this magnitude has the whole county using shovels, rakes, and brooms to tidy up.  The rain is certainly worth the trouble.





Driving Range Tee Improvements

The back tier of the driving range tee has been shrinking for years.  The usable practice area was limited by a landscaped bed at the back of the tee, costing us nearly a week of playable turf.  In early August, we removed the palms in that bed and started to prepare the tee for new sod.

The Tifway hybrid bermuda has been down for over a month and players have enjoyed the tee for the last two weeks.  Playable surface area increased from 4700 square feet to 7400 square feet, a 60% increase.  We should get three weeks of practice time on the upper tee alone.

Further improvements to the area include the renovation of the space between the driving range and the tee complex for the first hole.  We removed some large and overgrown birds of paradise bushes and will be planting over fifty drought tolerant plants matching the rest of our new landscape. Decomposed granite will replace the turf that used to cover this area, providing a clean look and multiple access points between practice area and the first tee.

This small project increases our turf reduction total by another 3500 square feet to nearly 40 acres in the last three years.

New Tool, New Toy

I recently submitted a video to a contest hosted by TurfNet and Aquatrols on the topic of Smart Water Management.  Our Turf Reduction Program offered some great material and saving water has been our focus for a number of years.  Doug Ayers of Corral de Tierra, one of the most innovative superintendents I've ever known, took first place leaving me with a very cool second place prize.  You can see the top three videos by following this link: TurfNet Videos

We now have a tool in our arsenal that does much more than entertain, which it does quite well.  The DJI Phantom 3 Advanced drone is the most exciting toy I've ever owned.  It reaches speeds over 30 mph, comes with a very good camera, and can capture photos and videos I've always wanted at a golf course.

So, how is this useful to the course?  First off, the obvious answer is the marketing potential, shooting excellent photos at no additional cost.  Aerial photographs have always been attractive to a golf course, but the price tag made it hard to justify.  You'll be seeing many new photos on the website, blog, and newsletter as I pick out the best and share with the other departments.

From a turf standpoint, the overhead view is very useful to investigate problems that are hard to see at ground level.  Drainage issues, irrigation uniformity, soil inefficiencies, fertilizer applications, and shade patterns are just some of the issues we face everyday.  A quick flyover by the drone will produce many photos I can share with our staff as we work to make the course as good as it can be.

Project planning and documentation are also made easy with wide angle pics achieved with altitude.  Before I would draw out plans on the shop's dry erase board and point to old maps in the shop along with a trip to the job site.  Having a actually photo of the area in question with sketches right on the photo takes out any guess work and allows the staff to accomplish exactly what I'm looking for without extra supervision.

  Last night, I was trying to get some sunset photos on the par 3 12th hole.  The sunset was a little disappointing with much of the color lost in a distant marine layer.

I'm still learning to fly the drone, but I can't help to get a little overconfident and fly too close to potential hazards, for example, the the ash tree next to 12 green.  The video of the crash is great, but the blogger site is not liking it right now.  I'll try again later.

The good news is the drone is OK and was back in the sky after I dusted off the leaf debris and bunker sand.

In case you were wondering, my dog, Izzo, hates the drone.  When she is around, I have to land it on top of a golf cart.  I'll post a good example in the near future.

Things you'll see this weekend

Each weekend, members are treated to the first look of some new scenery.  Closing the back nine during the week allows our contractors and the BHCC staff to accomplish so much more while remaining safe from errant shots.  We appreciate your patience and understanding during this very important project.

 In 3 weeks, United GLI has finished holes 12, 13, 14, and 15 and the 16th hole is being planted today. All turf to be removed is stripped off number 17 which will be irrigated with drip emitters next week.  The tee complexes on #'s 11, and 18 are also ready for new plantings and then it's on to holes 10 and 11.

If you haven't been to the club recently, there are changes to be seen from the moment you pull up the driveway.  For 3 years, I've wanted to remove the grass that struggled under the ficus trees and dress up our entry with drought tolerant plants that look good year round.  I'm pretty happy with the new look as are many of the club's visitors.

















The driving range is missing a few plants that divided the pavement from the back tee.  We are transplanting the palms and ornamental garlic to make room for more tee space.  The back tee of the range will be renovated in-house over the next month and this is step number one.  We should gain about 5 days worth of practice, all of which will be on level bermudagrass.

The fairway on #13 has finally been sprayed out with Monument herbicide which eliminates cool season grass, leaving only bermuda behind.  This is the last fairway, besides some of the par 3's.  I'm pretty happy with the amount of bermuda that we have to work with.  Most areas will fill in the small voids and we will sod any large sections.  As intended, we will have 100% bermuda fairways by the end of this summer, 3 years after beginning this campaign and 5 years post-overseeding.

New turf on a reshaped, combo tee for #'s 11 and 18 looks a little brown, but don't worry.  Bermuda sod will often turn brown if it becomes stressed out as a defense mechanism to limit carbohydrate reserves until there are better conditions.  As you can see, there are many new white roots already 3 inches into the soil.  This sod will be solid green in no time.