FROM THE CLUB PRESIDENT DOC HOLLIDAY
This is my last Divot Digest message as President, as my final term comes to an end on April 7, 2025. It has been a great honor to have led many great projects that improved the overall golfing experience at Tonto Verde Golf Club over the past years. There have been a few experiences I would rather not have gone through, but being in a leadership role at a premier club inside a utopian community has been rewarding. I have recently heard some rumblings and questions about why the Ranch fairways aren’t as good as the Peaks. While there has been an abundance of communication on this, I will explain along with the changes being made to help address this possibility. The Ranch was over-seeded during triple digit temperatures because the golf calendar dictated that had to be done. Had we been able to delay 8 days, the temperatures and the conditions would have been the same as when the over-seed process began on the Peaks. The triple- digit temps make it difficult (nearly impossible) to force the Bermuda grass to go dormant. While we sprayed growth retardant three times, it just couldn’t overcome the temps. Therefore, the winter rye grass’s fragile root system must fight the Bermuda’s strong root system for water and nutrients. The Bermuda grass won. When Bermuda finally goes dormant as the weather conditions change, thin areas and brown bare spots appear. The Rye grass simply could not germinate and survive in those areas, and thus, there is
only dormant Bermuda. The Peaks was over-seeded in ideal weather conditions, and the fairways reflect that. In addition, the Peaks water from well #5 has a reduced sodium content compared to the well #8, which supplies the Ranch. There is nothing that can be done about the water quality (although improved effluent quality looks to be on the horizon), but the overseed schedule can be controlled. We asked that the golf calendar be cleared in November to give us the flexibility to react to the weather conditions. Therefore, there will be no formal events in November. The flexibility of delaying by 8-10 days, if necessary, would ensure we ALL have great conditions for 5 months versus a FEW enjoying a special tournament in November. In addition, we had gone 28 months without a soaking rain (1” over 8 hours) that is needed to wash out the sodium build-up in our sand base. We just received that rain, and you will see the results quickly. As an aside, if we had not created the sand bases, we would have been playing on dirt and dormant Bermuda this year on the Ranch-like it used to be. Again, thank you for allowing me to serve as President these past years. I am now going to start enjoying these wonderful golf courses. Doc Holliday, TVGC President Doc Holliday
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