Upcoming work

That's right, just days away from starting the irrigation project. We actually started a small portion of it already. Last week we installed the road crossing on Wing Point Way. The 8" irrigation pipe and 2" sleeve for wires was successfully installed, but with one hiccup. The utilities locate prior to the dig was mishandled a bit. It turns out Qwest marked the road in an entirely different location by accident. All other utilities were located correctly. Just minutes into excavation the company doing the project cut the phone lines to the Clubhouse...as well as many neighbors in the area. Fortunately Qwest reacted quickly and the problem was resolved a few hours later. Hopefully that was not a sign of things to come.

We will likely be starting the work on holes 4 - 8 since this is the driest area of the course. All systems are go for the project and we're hoping the El Nino condition in the Pacific Ocean holds strong to history and allows for a dry Winter ahead. During the project we anticipate very little disruption to play. The hole being worked on that day could be turned into a Par 3, but that's it. We don't anticipate closing a golf hole. There will be "extras" in the project that the Wing Point Staff will be working on. These include some tee remodels and bunker work to utilize the excess spoils from the ditches being dug.

I asked Santa for grass on #10, 15 and 16 greens. He didn't come through! I don't think he really exists. We will be doing some work over the next 2 months on the greens that have experienced turf loss. Small portions of #4, 5, 7, 8, 13 and 14...along with widespread loss on #10, 15 and 16 will be aerated with very small 1/4" diameter tines once a week to incorporate oxygen into the root zone. The areas in question may not be mowed as often, which will result in slower ball roll. We apologize, but it is necessary at this point. The frustrating thing is we can't do much of anything right now to grow grass, so the best thing we can do is prepare the damaged areas for spring green up. Our plan is to get as much recovery as possible during good growing conditions in March and April. Any areas that do not fully recover by May 1st will be immediately sodded, similar to what we've done every spring on the 4th green. I concede that we have a root problem we are working on, however, another key point to our turf loss is this...all the greens with turf loss experience heavy shade from October to March. All the greens that are perfect experience very little shade if any. Sunlight!!!!!! What a concept.