Golf Green Restoration in Sunny California

Knock on wood,”tap,tap”, the weather during the CA rainy season started early(Dec), and has slowed down for the most part and Matt Magarian and crew have finished their first internal subsurface greens drainage restoration project north of Sacramento in historic Roseville,CA at Sierra View Country Club.

Here is Matt’s crew completing some finishing touches on the putting green at SVCC. As you can observe the turf was in fine condition on our arrival, and this makes for a really clean project. A heavy fog rolled in for the few days our XGD install team and you can see the slight “marine layer” in the background of the picture.

Sierra View CC was designed/built in 1953 by golf architect Jack Fleming, and has matured in to a stunning layout in the area, with a gorgeous mix of mature trees and enough space to feel like you have gotten away from it all. Golf superintendent Kyle Dykstra and his crew keep the club grounds in magnificent conditions as you can see in this picture as well. After some evaluation of our greens drainage process this coming year, the club may opt to complete more of their greens in the future.

Matt’s crew have travelled south to Glendale,CA and will begin a multiple greens project at Oakmont Country Club this week that I have the good fortune myself of heading out to be on site. Oakmont was built in 1922 and designed by renowned CA golf architect Max H. Behr. This club had checked out our operation last winter at Wilshire CC, and was eager to sign on with XGD after the success of that project. XGD is looking forward to this project and working closely with golf club superintendent Steve Kimbrough to help improve the greens, in this mostly arid climate.

Our internal drainage in the desert climate serves a much different purpose than most all of our other projects in humid climates. Instead of the threat of too much precipitation on these desert push-ups, the threat is tied in to the replication of Mother Nature through reclaimed irrigation water with “harmful to turfgrass” sodium levels. As these superintendents go through one of their typical hot/dry summers and use their irrigation systems extensively to help procure turf health, the continued buildup of the salt level gets to a critical level dangerously close to the crown of the poa annua plant. The ability to flush the salts deeper in to the soil profile is what we are giving these clubs. We believe it may turn in to one of the most important tools in these super’s arsenals to combat turfgrass diseases such as turfgrass rapid blight and anthracnose.

So, I am looking forward to heading out there this week, and wanted to invite anyone in the Glendale area to stop by for an XGD Field Day at Oakmont CC on Thursday, February 3rd at 10am. We already have some RSVP’s for this, so please give us a ring if you might be able to stop by on Thursday and witness a green “under the XGD knife”, and view a finished green at Oakmont as well.

Happy Trails, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer