236 years old ... WOW. America's official birthday is today and I could not be more proud to be an American. Today we will be putting out the American flag on 1 & 10, as well as at the practice ... please treat these flags with respect since so many have died over the years defending what they stand for to Americans.
As it has been the past two - three summers yesterday we went to look at other golf courses in the Valley to see how their transition is going compared to ours. These courses included Desert Falls, Desert Island, Marriot Desert Island and soon Bermuda Dunes. What was the conclusion besides the obvious that you can't compare apples to oranges (i.e. differing conditions at each course)? Well they all were in differing states of transition, some better, some worse but all transitioning.
Summer seems the harder that my team works, the less that this hard work goes noticed. Everyone forgets just how fantastic the season was which led to RECORD setting sales in the Valley! Summertime means transition ... if you overseed, ryegrass will die and look ugly in the summer. This year we decided as a Club to allow this transition to occur ALL summer long vs. chemically treating which speeds the process ... sadly the worse is still to come. Transition has happened to Avondale every year I have been here and every year long before my arrival. In years before my arrival it was so bad that the golf course closed long before October because there wasn't ANY turf in the fairways!
Comparing golf course many factors and questions must be asked: How many trees are there and what is their shade and root issue effects; age of the golf course and the organic buildup in the soil; type of underlying grass; amount of traffic; irrigation potential and efficiency; quality of equipment; amount of staff to address issues and budget constraints; overseeding rates; timing of the overseeding and prep required; etc. This list would be pages long and still never cover all of the differences not even factoring in the weather conditions for a given year and the timing of certain processes.
I can tell everyone these facts, USGA and turf professors around the world back these facts ... but any respond sounds like an "excuse." The plain fact is we are addressing all of the issue we KNEW that were coming as quickly as the team can. Other than a couple of hot spots just before aerification, 10 days ago there weren’t any complaints ... now that transition has started that fact is different. I and my team will continue to strive our very best ... our goal is excellent conditions, not to make the membership unhappy.
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