Lakes Opens Saturday, November 6th (Cart Paths Only) - Vistas will be 90 degree rule with carts
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Westbrook Village Golf Club
Course Conditions
Tomorrow, Saturday, November 6th
The Lakes Course Opens (Cart Paths Only)
The Vistas Course will be 90 degree
*The above video is from Thursday, November 4th
Vistas is Now Open After a Great Overseed!
The Vistas is now open and as you will all see soon, our superintendent David Escobedo and his crew have done another amazing job with the overseed. We received all of the limited seed we ordered and were able to seed at a rate per acre that was just under what we have in the past.
While the course was closed, we were able to make a few improvements:
- We started the planned xeriscaping on holes 6-9 for our future AZ water restrictions. Currently it has been sprayed out and decomposed granite will be placed later this winter.
- Hole #13 fairway bunker has been reshaped to allow a mower to fit on the left side so that maintenance no longer has to hand mow this small area.
- The first bunker on hole #15 has been sodded with grass as recommended by the USGA for added playability.
- The right fairway bunker on hole #18 has been sodded with grass as recommended by the USGA for reduced maintenance and aesthetics as it was not in play.
- We have filled many of the bunkers with new sand.
Below is a hole by hole fly over taken Thursday, October 21
Cart Paths Only
We are planning to be "Cart Paths Only" for the three weeks. There was extensive compaction from last season and in addition to allowing solo carts, we had a record number of rounds this past year. With the seed shortage for golf clubs, we were put in a position to utilize a seed that we have not used in recent years and we will need to gauge how it roots and adapts to our soil before we start letting carts go free. Please understand the new grass is only three weeks old and it needs a good start to last through the winter. We have been impressed with this seed so far and as you will see it has a wonderful color and will create a great surface for playing. The greens and grounds crews will be monitoring the turf conditions to allow carts as soon as it is safe.
We look forward to another great year at Westbrook Village Golf Club. Thank you for being part of such a wonderful community.
David Escobedo, Head Superintendent
Brandon Evans II, PGA Director of Golf
GolfPass: A guide to overseeding: What, where and why
Here is a good article on overseeding done by GolfPass.
https://www.golfpass.com/travel-advisor/articles/a-guide-to-overseeding-what-where-and-why
The seed is in!
So the wait and potential frustration is over. The state of Oregon grows 90% of the rye grass seed used by golf courses throughout the South and West. They have been hit by significant drought conditions these past few years. We were warned that prices were going to soar and quantities could be greatly reduced.
David Escobedo, our Golf Course Superintendent had to pull all his strings to ensure we could get seed, even though many other courses don’t seem to be so fortunate. As of Thursday we had 65,000 pounds delivered from 3 different sources. David has verified the quality of seed has met our specifications and our overseed this year will be as good as or even better than last year.
As mentioned above, the cost of seed soared this year with the very short supplies. We paid an average of $1.97 per pound compared to $1.07 last year.
Fortunately we are in a very strong financial position and able to absorb this additional cost with no effect to the course conditions or operations.
As you may or may not know, we have postponed the requirement of two carts per group that was going to take effect as of October 1. COVID concerns are still very
serious and we have listened to our membership. Many are still uncomfortable to start riding together in carts. Please understand this heavy cart usage may cause us to play “Cart Path Only” for a longer period of time this year to preserve the quality of the turf and the golf courses.
Fortunately we are in a very strong financial position and able to absorb this additional cost with no effect to the course conditions or operations.
As you may or may not know, we have postponed the requirement of two carts per group that was going to take effect as of October 1. COVID concerns are still very
serious and we have listened to our membership. Many are still uncomfortable to start riding together in carts. Please understand this heavy cart usage may cause us to play “Cart Path Only” for a longer period of time this year to preserve the quality of the turf and the golf courses.
Rick Walker & Ray Melton
Golf Committee Co-Chairs
Greens and Grounds Overseed Update - Vistas Prep Begins
As we enter the fall season and temperatures finally begin to come down I would like to let everyone know we will begin preparing the Vistas GC for overseeding this week. We will start by reducing the watering on the golf course. Doing so will slow the growth of the Bermuda grass down. The down side to doing this is that after working hard all summer to get the course green and healthy we will now allow it to turn brown.
The second process is the lowering of the mowing heights. We will begin that process this week on the aprons and fairways. After this week we will begin the dethatching process which will mean we will be aggressively removing excess growth and grass clippings throughout the golf course so that we can be ready to begin seeding October 4th.
To help with the overseeding prep, the Vistas course will be closed both Tuesday and Wednesday (September 28 & 29) next week. The Lakes GC will be open all next week and will not begin overseed prep until the first week of October. This means it will remain in great shape until then.
Thank you for your understanding during this years overseed process.
David Escobedo
Head Superintendent
2019/2020
Business Associate Members
