GROUNDS COMMITTEE
MONSOONS? We need rain at Tonto! We’ve been regularly teased with possible showers, but most of them have dissipated before any significant moisture materializes. We’re managing reasonably well with irrigation water, but it’s both expensive and salty (not great for our grass). Send your best Rain Dance videos, and maybe we’ll publish them in next month’s Divot Digest. RANCH GREENS Doc will probably have something to say about the Ranch green re-surfacing in his President’s letter, but everyone should be aware that this year’s accelerated sprigging schedule has really paid off. The greens are coming in very nicely, and we’re ‘way ahead of last year’s Peaks re-surfacing. Travis and his team are already sanding, aerating, and mowing, and this head start should allow us to be much more aggressive with these practices….hopefully reducing some of the “hard green syndrome” we experienced on the Peaks last year. The Peaks greens have also responded very well to aggressive aeration and sanding over the summer and are holding shots nicely.
ENHANCED SIGHT LINES Perhaps not as obvious as some of the other changes happening at Tonto are significant improvements to sight lines from several of our tees. We’ve looked at views from each set of tees toward possible landing areas and have cleaned up vegetation that has gradually encroached on players’ ability to see where their tee shots are landing. Many of these changes will be so subtle that most won’t notice them, but some of the more significant work has been done to the left side of 1, 2, and 18 Peaks and the left side of 18 Ranch. We’ve also selectively cleared some nasty bushes and brush that had a tendency to swallow golf balls. Our purpose isn’t to drastically change the basic nature of our desert courses, but the changes should make it a bit less likely that the 3-minute search clock will expire on balls that take off on unintended lines. This work will continue over the summer.
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