Greens Nursery II

Even with the cooler temps we have gotten some nice germination thanks to the use of the greens cover.  This helps to trap the heat in and speed up germination and establishment.  We will keep the cover on all winter and be mowing in the spring.  Hopefully, we can use this for plugs and greens repairs by late summer or early fall 2013. 

Rules are rules...

Cart restrictions are sometimes put into place to protect the unsuspecting player from entering wet or water-logged turf and causing damage.  It's no fun to call the golf shop and tell them there are cart restrictions for the day but believe me, they are put in place for a reason. 

These are pictures from today (10/25/12) on hole #4.  This time of year on #4 fairway, the angle of the sun has dropped so much that the tree line shades out the left side for nearly the entire day.  This makes small rain events last a long time in certain spots on the course.  I let carts off the paths the last two days with the exception of a few holes (#4 included) and placed ropes and signage in the saturated spots because I felt that this could be the last good golfing weather of the season.  Please understand and respect the cart rules for the day, as they are put in place for a reason.

BVGC in all its fall glory

October at Bull Valley...

#7 Bunker Face

We were able to complete the re-sodding of the bunker face and green bank on #7 just before the rains hit on Wednesday.  This area has been thin for the past couple of seasons due to the lack of green surround irrigation, the location of the 100+ year old Oak tree, the high concentration of Poa and bentgrass contamination and the amount of sand splashed out of the bunker during play.  Over time, bunker edges shift and generally creep despite regular edging.  The harsh summer basically pushed this area over the edge and we wanted to correct this to provide a better playing surface and restore the edge to its original position. 

Greens Nursery

Back in August we began a project to create a greens nursery from which we could pull plugs from in the event of damage to a green: vandalism, hydraulic leaks, the persistent squirrel etc.  Currently, we lack such an area and have to rely on using the back corner of the practice green for sod.  We chose to excavate the small tee area from the backside of the practice bunker.  Originally, I believe this area was intended to serve as the chipping area for the practice facility, but with the creation of the short-game chipping and pitching area this teeing ground became nothing more than an unused area.  

Cart Traffic

Cart restrictions were invented out of necessity following the introduction of the motorized golf cart.  Ideally, we would allow carts to go as they please but there are certain times when it is necessary to protect the sensitive areas of the course from the wear and tear of repetitive cart traffic.  As a friendly reminder, the staff asks that you: 

Obey any restrictions such as "Path Only" days
Stay on the paths around all tees and greens
Keep carts on paths on all par 3's
Refrain from pulling off the path edges when parked near greens and tees (after years of driving it is a force of habit to pull off the side of the road but this concentrates wear)
Obey all signage, ropes and stakes

We have purchased several cart directional signs recently and hopefully you have seen them out on the course.  These are designed to help flow cart traffic away from greens and certain "bottleneck" areas on the course as well as to spread out the cart traffic to avoid concentrated wear areas.

Thank you