A Dairy Creek Flyover

My wife and recently were traveling by plane and happened to fly right over the top of Dairy Creek and Morro Bay as well, but I couldn't get to the other side of the plane as we were still climbing in altitude (darn aviation rules!). Below you can easily distinguish our 88 acres of maintained turf among the brown area that used to be the Gilardi dairy farm.

Brewing some good stuff!

The tea is steeping and will be done in the next 48 hours. The video is not much but you can check it out on Youtube below. I hope that everyone has a great Father's Day weekend and enjoy watching the 110th U.S. Open. It does not seem like 10 years ago that I was helping our crew battle the pressure and elements preparing the course at Southern Hills CC. I really feel for the guys sticking it out this week as the greens already look a bit stressed during yesterdays round and sleep will not be something those individuals get a lot of until Monday night.

"If you were playing Jack Nicklaus, you knew that he was better than you, he knew that he was better than you, and you knew that he knew that you knew he was better than you."

~Chi Chi Rodriguez

20 Facts You Didn't Know About Golf.

Here is a list I came across the other day on LinkedIn.  It is from the website www.intotherough.co.uk.

1. 125,000 golf balls a year are hit into the water at the famous 17th hole of the Stadium Course at Sawgrass (pictured).

2. The longest drive ever is 515 yards. The longest putt ever is a monstrous 375 feet

3. Phil Mickelson, who plays left-handed, is actually right handed. He learned to play golf by mirroring his father’s golf swing, and he has used left handed golf clubs ever since.

4. The chances of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf are one in 67 million.

5. Tiger Woods snagged his first ace at the tender age of eight years old.

6. Balls travel significantly further on hot days. A golfer swinging a club at around 100 mph will carry the driver up to eight yards longer for each increase in air temperature of 25°F.

7. The longest golf course in the world is the par 77 International Golf Club in Massachusetts which measures a fearsome 8325 yards

8. The highest golf course in the world is the Tactu Golf Club in Morococha, Peru, which sits 14,335 feet above sea level at its lowest point.

9. The longest golf hole in the world is the 7th hole (par 7) of the Sano Course at the Satsuki Golf Club in Japan. It measures an incredible 909 yards.

10. The largest bunker in the world is Hell's Half Acre on the 585-yard 7th hole of the Pine Valley Course in New Jersey.

11. The largest golfing green is that of the 695-yard, 5th hole, a par 6 at the International Golf Club in Massachusetts, with an area in excess of 28,000 square feet.

12. The driver swing speed of an average lady golfer is 62mph; 96mph for an average LPGA professional; 84mph for an average male golfer; 108mph for an average PGA Tour player; 130mph for Tiger Woods; 148-152mph for a national long drive champion.

13. There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

14. The first golf balls were made of thin leather stuffed with feathers. Tightly-packed feathers made balls that flew the farthest. Feather balls were used until 1848.

15. The youngest golfer to shoot a hole-in-one was Coby Orr, who was five years old at the time. It happened in Littleton, Colorado, in 1975.

16. 22.8% of golfers are women. Source

17. Golf was banned in Scotland from 1457 to 1502 to ensure citizens wouldn't waste time when preparing for an English invasion

18. The term birdie comes from an American named Ab Smith. While playing 1899, he played what he described as a "bird of a shot", which became "birdie" over time.

19. The word golf does not mean "Gentleman Only, Ladies Forbidden". This is an internet myth. Read more here

20. Don't feel bad about your high handicap -80% of all golfers will never achieve a handicap of less than 18 .

"If you wish to hide your character, do not play golf."

~Percy Boomer, golf instructor

US Open at Congressional Country Club

U.S. Open Maintenance at Congressional Country Club

With the 2011 U.S. Open scheduled for Congressional Country Club June 16-19, the competitors are preparing themselves for a stiff competition to identify the best player at the championship.

While watching the U.S. Open on television may make many golfers envious of championship playing conditions, this work involves many extra volunteers who help the maintenance staff accomplish the countless tasks to put the course in shape. Thanks to the support from equipment companies and highly-qualified volunteer labor, maintenance tasks can be performed daily, and often many times per day. Every area of the golf course is maintained to provide the best possible playing quality, but these conditions are just temporary. This level of conditioning cannot be sustained week-in and week-out without such tremendous support.

Congressional Country Club

Course Fact Sheet

Fairways:

Width: Ranges from 18 to 35 yards, averaging 25 yards wide in the primary landing zones.

Grass Type: Predominantly Penncross creeping bentgrass along with other varieties interseeded over the years.

Mowing Height: 0.345 inch

Tees:

Grass Type: Penncross creeping bentgrass

Mowing Height: 0.345 inch

Greens:

Grass Type: Greens were rebuilt in 2009 to USGA Guidelines for Putting Green Construction and established with a blend of Penn A-1 and A-4 creeping bentgrass.

Mowing Height: 0.10 Mowing Height for collars and approaches: 0.310 inch

Target Stimpmeter Reading: 14-14.5 feet

Irrigation Practices: Only hand-watering on the greens. The goal is to achieve firmness without compromising the health of the grass. Soil moisture levels are constantly monitored with hand-held testers and in-ground sensors. Fairways and tees are irrigated on an as-needed basis. Wetting agents have been applied due to sand topdressing of both fairways and tees. The goal is to achieve even wetting when irrigation is applied.

Roughs:

Grass Type:

o intermediate rough – primarily perennial ryegrass

o primary rough – predominantly turf-type tall fescue.

On each side of the fairway, a 6-foot wide swath of intermediate rough running the length of each hole will be mowed at 0.875 inch. The same mowing height is used for the bunker tie-ins.

On greens with a primary rough, the mowing height is 3 inches.

For the sixth consecutive year, the USGA will use graduated primary rough. This setup creates a tougher and more challenging recovery shot for those who hit their drives farther off-line.

The first cut of primary rough is 6 yards wide and mowed between 2.75-3.25 inches, depending on the length of the hole.

The second cut of rough is mowed to 4 inches, depending on the turf growth rate. This height extends to and beyond the gallery rope lines.

Bunkers:

Maintenance: New sand has been added to all bunkers. All bunkers are hand-raked.

Maintenance Crew:

Congressional C.C. crew size: 55

Number of mechanics on staff during the Open: 3Pg 3 TGIF Record Number: 182513 Green Section Record Vol. 49 (23) June 10, 2011

Number of volunteers: 120. Most are experienced golf course superintendents and assistant superintendents who volunteer their time for the week.

Where the volunteers are housed: Nearby in housing at American University.

How the maintenance crew and volunteers are fed: Breakfast, lunch and dinner are prepared by the Congressional C.C. chef for the entire maintenance staff and volunteers.

Typical hours worked during the championship: Morning shift 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Afternoon shift 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Staff is on property throughout the day in case of rain.

Miscellaneous Maintenance Points:

Amount of extra equipment on hand: Six walking greens mowers, four walking collar mowers, eight turf rollers, four walking tee mowers, 19 five-plex fairway mowers, three rotary rough units with 9-foot cutting width, two rotary rough units with 6-foot cutting width, one reel rough unit with 6-foot cutting width, two mechanical bunker rakes, 22 maintenance carts and 36 squeegees.

Typical mowing schedule during the championship: All principal in-play areas will be mowed every day. Greens, tees and fairways are mowed twice a day.

Soil moisture: Monitored by in-ground soil sensors and hand-held soil moisture meters. The greens are also equipped with an underground water evacuation system.

Soil Firmness: The firmness of the greens will be measured each day (morning and evening) using the USGA TruFirm system to monitor soil firmness. A relative range has been determined for each green to gauge the receptiveness of the green in holding an approach shot.

The SLO Life (check it out it is Dairy Creek Golf Course!)

San Luis Obispo was recently rated THE happeist place in America and 2nd in the world and the footage here clearly defines why. This video is not truly golf related, but Dairy Creek was the site chosen for adding golf to the promo. It was great working with Ben the videographer with Cana films and his acting staff (well done Ben and thanks!) If you are ever looking for a little slice of paradise come to SLO and look us up.

Enjoy!

Landscape upgrades which add serious curb appeal

Recently we hired a new staff member, Frank Dutra, who previously owned and operated his own landscape company in our County. Frank has been doing well and his work efforts have been making a statement with our customers. Before you ask what Frank has been doing on the greens to make people stand up and take notice let me fill you in about what Frank has been doing to help our facilities undergo recognizable changes.

With Frank's background and experience in landscaping we put his talents to work revamping our plans to imporve the landscaping at Dairy Creek GC. We started the project nearly a year ago, but have not had the time or energy to complete the task. When Frank came aboard the timing was perfect! He started along the walkway entrance to the building after staff poured the new mow strip at the base of the rock wall. Once that was complete he moved across the front lawn to totally rework the landscaping in our large beds. Here have a look!

Dave Wilkerson is our concrete expert with years of experience utilizing these materials. His experience has been instrumental to many projects we have completed around our courses.

Sometimes you just can't keep a hard working guy in his office! This Albert Nunes our Golf Supervisor out with the crew getting his hands dirty.

Here is the front lawn and landscaping all completed. Now it's time to let Mother Nature do her thing!

On to the front entry sign...here is Dave setting the forms for the concrete.

The concrete is in and the Grizzly Youths are planting the new material as per Frank's design.

We are awaiting bark mulch, landscape boulders, and some river cobble to finish off the look. Keep watching this area as you drive in for your next rounds of golf at Dairy Creek.

2011 SLO County Amateur Championship Results

Congratulations to the winners of the 2011 SLO County Amateur Championship

Justin Warthen is the SLO County Amateur Champion

and

Patrick Sumner is the 2011 SLO Net Amateur Champion

Champion Division	FINAL
Justin Warthen**	140
Rory Doll	140
Levi Garci	141
Alex Romo	143
Brian Walker	145
Drew Perolio	145
Tim Toste	146

Net Division	FINAL
Patrick Pumner**	140
Lew McDaniel	140
Bob White	143
John Tanner	144
Tom Biggs	145

** won in playoff