Get your "NEW" SLOGolf Card!

Come out to one of our courses or go to www.slogolfcard.com and receive the ability to play 54 different holes of golf on the Central Coast. There are no other memberships that afford you 54 holes of golf for such a GREAT price!

If you purchase your card by Dec. 31, 2009 you will receive an additional free round of golf good for any of the three courses. This is in addition to a free round at each of our courses (3 free rounds!), a guest pass good for 10 guests to play with you at your rate, exclusvie monthly tournaments, specials, and promotions, and of course the most affordable greens fees on the Central Coast!

Sales start October 1st and the card rates are available immediately and continue until Dec. 31, 2010. Don't waste time waiting for other courses to offer a special rate, come get your SLOGolf Card and have the best rate everyday of the week. Visit www.slogolfcard.com and buy your card now!

Student golfer program at Chalk Mountain Golf Course

Chalk Mountain Golf Course participates in the Life Fitness program hosted by the Atascadero High School. The Life Fitness program is designed to introduce students to sports which are not typically part of the school team sport experience. Golf is a team sport for many schools across the country, however many individuals never become exposed to the game of golf and Chalk Mountain is glad to be able to provide this experience.

Through the program students, mostly juniors and seniors, are taught the basics of golf and career opportunities over the span of 3 weeks. The program starts with putting, chipping, and full swing where the students practice their grip, posture, and swing mechanics. This is followed by a walk through of all of the golf facilities available at Chalk Mountain including pro shop, cart barns, restaurant, and turf maintenance. The next step is getting out onto the course to discuss etiquette, golf course behavior, golf course set up, the areas of the golf course (greens, tees, fairways, bunkers, and roughs), and strategy of playing the game.

The staff and volunteers that are given the opportunity to help with this program truly enjoy being able to give back to the game that has given them so much. Through junior programs we hope to instill the morals and values that can help an individual be successful in life by simulating those difficult experiences on the golf course. Golf is truly one of the greatest sports as YOU are responsible for the situations you will encounter, good or bad, and YOU are responsible for getting your ball out of trouble and assessing penalties or celebrations along the way!

"The great thing about golf is that it's not a fair game. At one point or another it's unfair to everybody. But you know what? There's nothing wrong with having a game that's unfair."

-- Ben Wright, Good Bounces & Bad Lies

San Luis Obispo Men's City Amateur

The SLO City Amateur Championship was held again at Dairy Creek Golf Course over this past weekend and there was definitely some great golf on display. We would like to congratulate our Champion Brian Wiggins who pulled it out after the 2nd playoff hole of the sudden death playoff. Brian won with a final score of 145. Mike Rockenstein won the 1st Flight (Net Scoring) by shooting a 141 and after winning the first hole of a sudden death playoff. Our 2nd Flight (Net Scoring) winner was Bill Miller with a 133!

Arrrgh! Aerification!

This process is a necessary evil that is no more enjoyable for maintenance staff's to perform than it is for golfers to play through. Maybe it's not too bad to play through them if you aren't expecting a terrible experience. Consider the fact that PGA Tour legend Tom Watson shot a sizzling record 58 at his then-home course, Kansas City Country Club, just days after the greens had been aerified. Consider also that aerification is merely a short-term disruption that has long-term benefits for the course. When you see them, remember that without those little holes, the greens would eventually die.

Like so many things, the quality of a good putting green is more than skin deep. In fact, the condition of a green has a lot to do with what goes on below the surface. In order to keep grass growing at 1/8-inch you have to have deep, healthy roots. Good roots demand oxygen. In good soil, they get the oxygen from tiny pockets of air trapped between soil and sand particles.
Over time, the traffic from golfers' feet (as well as heavy mowing equipment) tends to compact the soil under the putting green - particularly when the soil contains a lot of clay. When soil becomes compacted, the air pockets on which the roots depend are crushed, and the roots are essentially left gasping for air. Without oxygen, the grass plants will wither and die.

Aerification is a mechanical process that creates more air space in the soil and promotes deeper rooting, thus helping the grass plants stay healthy. In most cases, it's done by removing 1/2-inch cores (those plugs you sometimes see near a green or in fairways). The spaces are then filled with sand "topdressing" that helps the soil retain air space and makes it easier for roots to grow downward.

We typically perform our core aeration in the spring and a deep tine aerification during the fall, but this year we utilized a new service called Dry-Ject in the spring to help minimize the disruption to golfers and we will core aerify this fall. Actually we just completed our fall aerification at Morro Bay this week and the process went very smooth and smooth is now the goal! There will be some sand and bumpiness for the rest of this week with the greens starting to fill in by the weekend and by next weekend they will be back to normal.

During our process we fertilize the greens to help speed up the healing process and also inter-seed the greens with bentgrass to help increase our bentgrass populations on the greens. This is a time and labor intensive process that starts around 3 am and finishes up 11-12 hours later only to come back the next day and start over on the other nine holes!

Irrigation - can't live without 'em, but somtimes you wish you could.

Irrigation is the heart and circulatory system of a golf course, at least this is true for most areas of the U.S. Scotland and Ireland, the birth place of golf, have the correct conditions in regards to rain, temperature, soil types, and turf types, that many courses can manage without added irrigation systems.

Irrigation systems are a must here on the Central Coast to maintain quality playing conditions. These systems, however, are not fool proof and require contant tweaking and maintenance to ensure even coverage or in some cases regular operation.

A couple of weeks ago staff found that the irrigation on a few holes was not watering properly. Unfortunately this was pointed out by our greens as they began to stress and wilt due to lack of water or uneven distribution. The problem was determined to exist at our 12th hole. This photo shows an extension of pipe staff added to help blow out some debris that was clogging up our irrgation lines and not allowing water to flow to other areas of the course as well as plugging the irrigation heads surrounding the 12th green. What kind of debris you ask?

These rocks were found inside of our irrigation lines in the 12th hole. "Yes, that is a quarter sitting on the rock in the middle of the photo!" The 12th hole is the lowest point of the golf course and evidently this "sediment" had found it's way there over time. We are unsure how these rocks entered the line, but it could have been during the repair of a 10" mainline near our pump station on the 8th hole last winter or a smaller repair involving our booster pump on the 17th hole a couple of months ago. However they got there does not matter, we just need to get them out. We have installed a gate valve in the line below the 12th green to allow staff to flush out the line and rocks periodically. This will also allow us to drain the system when we need to repair areas of the system in the future.

"Start each hole aware that there may be subtle, mysterious or even hidden elements waiting to sabotage your game."

-Robert Trent Jones Jr., golf course architect

Sunrise over Dairy Creek Golf Course from the 17th green...beautiful!

The beauty that our staff and early morning golfers witness each morning! It is such a peaceful time on the course...the jack-rabbits are running around and the birds are up looking for their morning meals. Mowers humming and the sound of a hammer banging on a cup cutter, breaks up the silence before the sun peaks over the horizon.

The course looks amazing as the sun rises above the hills with the turf glistening as the sunlight reflects off of the morning dew. You'll often hear coyotes or foxes in the distance calling as well as the cadence from Camp San Luis across the famous Highway 1! These are just a handful of the joys of being on or around the course in the early morning...we hope you enjoy the day ahead; we sure will!

The North Cloisters, Morro Bay, California (PWS)
Updated: 14 min 26 sec ago
59.0 °F
Clear
Humidity:
87%
Dew Point:
55 °F
Wind:
4.0 mph from the WNW

Wind Gust:
4.0 mph
Pressure:
29.93 in (Falling)
Visibility:
10.0 miles

September SLO Golf Card promotion

Hurry out to the course and get your "Play all three and the 4th is FREE!" card. For the Month of September SLO Golf Card members can pick up one of these cards at any of the three courses and have the card punched as you pay to play each course. Once you have played all three courses the card can then be redeemed for a FREE round at the course of your choice!

Just another reason that makes the SLO Golf Card THE Golf Card on the Central Coast! You are not a member? Ask any of our staff how to join the membership with three golf courses to choose from or go to http://www.slogolfcard.com/ and become a member today!


"They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. It's more complicated than that."
- Gardner Dickinson, former PGA Tour Player