Less rope-lines, more split-rail

     The last couple of mornings we have had a little frost so we were able to continue on some more split-rail fencing at #12 green. We are trying to continue to remove as much of the permanent rope-lines and put in either the split-rail and posts or the round posts with cable. In the areas that get less traffic we are using the split-rail and the higher traffic areas are receiving the round posts and 1/4" plastic coated cable. This particular area on #12 was really driving us nuts as this is one of the first and last areas you see when you drive in and out of the course. When the rope-lines would get knocked down or stepped on it would leave a messy look to the area. Take a look at the handy work of Jose, Enrique and Scott in the pictures below.

Range closed / No Carts / Possible Frost

    I'm sorry but we will not be allowing carts this Saturday and Sunday due to the 1"+ rain we had yesterday. The range will also be closed at least through Sunday and possible on Monday.
     There is also a good chance for frost on Sunday and Monday mornings so please check in with the pro shop for any delays. Thanks!

All snowed in??

     The chance of snow that was supposed to hit us last night turned out to be more of a slushy wet mess. We woke up this morning to our cars covered in the frozen slush. When it lightened up this morning some of the greens had a little bit of the frozen hail-like stuff covering them which caused a bit of a delay to the golfers as temperatures were down in the low 30's. Here's a few pictures of our "white stuff" this morning.

My car with frozen slush!

A little snow ball



Putting Green



Mulch Pile w/snow



sNOw way!

    There is a slight chance for snow tomorrow. This is not something were getting too excited about but it would be a rare occurrence here in Monterey. I heard a couple people comment that the last time there was snow in our area was back in the late 60's.
    Even with a short week for our staff accomplished a lot this week. We were able to knock out all of our mowing, even mowing tees in a side-to-side cut. We were also able to extend the fairway out on hole 14. The original design of the hole was for a longer carry to the fairway but this has proved to be a bit of a stretch for some of our clientele. So in an effort to be a little more customer friendly we decided it wouldn't be too much more work to have to mow another 15-20 yards of fairway.



Tom - scalping down the rough on #14

 

Double cutting

    We followed up the scalping with a solid tine aeration, a bunch of rye seed, and a little fertilizer. Hopefully the rain that is forecast for the next couple of days will help to get this area in shape.

A Little Wet

   Well, after a beautiful week last week for the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach the tides have changed and we are getting dumped on here in Monterey. Usually the rain comes during the AT&T but this year they got lucky. So far this week we have received about 2.5 inches and there's still more to come. Here's a couple of pictures of our course during the downfall yesterday that brought on a littler thunder and lightening.



#9 Green



#18  Green



#1 Green





#1 Fairway





This one sprays and that one mixes!

     We have again been fortunate to add a couple more pieces to our equipment fleet, a 600 gallon mix tank and a 300 gallon tow-behind sprayer. In the past we have had to spray all of our herbicides, wetting agents and fertilizers on the entire golf course with our 175 gallon greens sprayer. Even though it did a great job and was very accurate, we were accumulating too many hours on that machine and were spending way too many man hours mixing and filling up. So with our recent acquisition of the 300 gallon sprayer we are now able to spray a lot more at one time and in turn reduce our man hours. With the addition of the 600 gallon mix tank we have been able to cut down on our mix and load time and the need for mixing product in 5 gallon buckets. Here's a few pictures of our new toys.

And down she goes....

     On Wednesday morning our Assistant Superintendent Tom cut down the dead pine on the right side of #10. This tree had been dead for quite some time and desperately needed to come down before someone got hurt. Last week Tom and a couple of guys on our crew took down the smaller pine that was on the left side of the hole. With both of the trees gone it sure makes the hole look a lot different. Soon we will be planting some new trees on either side of the fairway to create a new look for the hole. Sorry about the video being so dark. It was still early when we cut it down.

After the fall

The boys cleaning up