Just Another Day

I was once in a restaurant and listened to two older gentlemen go on about how firefighters are the most overpaid of all city service workers.  "All you ever see them do is clean their trucks and buy ingredients for chili at the grocery store", they said.  I didn't agree with these gentlemen then and after helping put out a recent fire on course, I've got even more respect for what firefighters do on a daily basis.  

A call came in Wednesday afternoon from the Pro Shop about a fire that started on the 6th hole of the canyon. As I approached, smoke was looming over the trees.  Upon arriving the fire was rather small, but the wind was blowing strong through the canyon.  Fortunately, another staff member and myself were able to get hoses hooked in and the fire was quickly extinguished.  The little bit of smoke was brutal to be in and I can't imagine how so many men and women are doing it on a daily basis throughout California right now.  

This was started by hitting a ball out of a native area and the club sparked on a rock. Whether you're playing for money or not, I don't see the reason why you can't give your playing partners a little bump.  Put them next to a rattlesnake hole if it doesn't seem fair.   

4/5 Canyon Creek Cleanup

This past week we spent our time cleaning up around the beautiful trees that are through out the creek which split 4 and 5 Canyon.  All we did was go through and remove suckers like we did on 2 Canyon two weeks ago and the results are amazing.  While I think it is great seeing the creek as you cross the bridge on 4 Canyon, I believe the better vista opened up is looking back on 5 Canyon green from 4 Canyon fairway.  

It really has been a treat for me restoring some areas to the way they must have looked 15 years ago when ownership and John Harbottle III designed and built the course.

Coming across the bridge on 4 Canyon

Looking back on 5 Canyon green

4 Lake Tranquility

With the frost we've had this week, we went to work on cleaning out the coyote brush and trees surrounding the creek on 4 Lake.  The objective was to have an unobstructed view to the fairway and expose the two picturesque rocks which were accomplished as seen in the pictures.

When the brush was cleared out and I was able to see and get in to the creek, I was really taken back though.  This creek hasn't run much in the last few years and when it has, I haven't paid attention, but the soft sound of water flowing through the creek was very tranquil.  I must of stood in there for ten minutes before leaving.  I enjoyed it so much that I took a small video of it.

A Native Trim

With the lack of rain, we have been busy hacking away all of our native areas.  The reason we like to do this is so we can give the grasses a competitive advantage over the weeds.  While this doesn't eliminate all the weeds, the grasses have certainly been gaining over the last few years.  We use line trimmers to do most of this which seems cruel and unusual, but we have to considering the terrain and the amount of rocks/ boulders in our native areas.  If you look at a recently trimmed area, you'll see green plants ready to spring as soon as we get some rain.

Coyote Brush

Does this picture look familiar? If you have been to the golf course lately, it should. This is another cart of coyote brush we are removing from the golf course.

Coyote brush is a woody plant that spreads like wildfire throughout the course. We are starting to clean it up now because I feel it provides a much cleaner look. Overtime, coyote brush tends to blow up from the inside and just looks messy.

One of our teaching pros, Justin Lippold, asked me why we are doing it and mentioned to me that some areas don't look good because it makes the course look younger. He is absolutely right. There are a couple of areas that we cleared out that didn't end up looking good at all. Particularly the left side of 1 lake and the left side of 3 lake tee complex. Everything we try to do on the golf course is with vision towards the future. Sometimes you see something that you think will look great removed, but once removed it doesn't work. Those are chances you take and luckily I have a management group that believes in me and allows me to take chances. The particular areas I mentioned will have coyote bushes back in a matter of no time.

I posted it a while ago, but when we cleared out 1 lake green and 2 lake green, I saw for the first time what the architects and owners envisioned. That is the real answer to Justin's question as to why we do it. Since then I continually try to bring back the allure that brought our owners here in the first place.