Bel-Air Country Club, CA XGD Installation

XGD Project Supervisor David Welsh recently got underway on an 18 green project at Bel-Air CC in Los Angeles. The club opened its doors in 1927 and was designed by renowned architect George C. Thomas who also designed Riviera CC among numerous fine golf tracts.

This project is not for traditional drainage purposes in this semi-arid climate, but rather for salt flushing purposes. Many clubs in this type of climate struggle after a hot summer of heavy irrigation with high sodium water, either from reclaimed sources or poor quality well water. As the salts get closer to the crown of the turfgrass plant it can also bring on a disease know as turfgrass rapid blight. While there is a fungicide available for this it can be costly, so the ultimate solution is a flushing of the greens profile on a regular basis which pushes the bicarbonates deeper in to the soil profile, and out of harms way. Without internal greens drainage, this flushing can leave the green wet for a week, which leads to a host of other issues such as poor playability and general greens maintenance hassles. Not to mention a wet green also is very susceptible to a wide range of other disease issues.

Bel-Air is looking to XGD to help solve this issue, as it has at Meadowbrook CC in Lubbock, TX. Home to some of the saltiest golf irrigation water in the country. At both facilities it is a highly desirable option versus the expensive and long disruption of a rebuild to sand greens. In Lubbock, we have turned their worst greens in to their best, and hope to achieve this at Bel-Air on every green.

I am heading out to Bel-Air in a few weeks to check in with Dave and GCS Brian Sullivan. During this visit we will be hosting a few other GCS’s as they come by to view our install team in action. So please contact us at XGD if you are interested in stopping by to review our process up close and personal.

Cheers, Poor Old Dirt Farmer