You typically find a golf course update or some interesting wildlife photos on my Blog. This time I am coming to you with unbelievable sad news that my dear friend Lorgio is in the fight of his life to protect and care for his 19 year son Gabe. Fresh out of High School and ready to head to college, Gabe was diagnosed with cancer. As Gabe begins treatments Lorgio has shown up and worked hard to provide his usual outstanding service to our owners. I will do whatever I can to make sure Lorgio and his family are taken care of during this trying time. He is like a brother to me, his pain is my pain. I have attached a link to their family’s GoFundme page. They keep this updated on his progress and other pertinent information. Please keep the Roman family in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for all your support throughout the years.

Donate to Help Gabe Fight Cancer – La Lucha de Gabriel Contra Cancer, organized by Luis Alejandro Roman Peredo**ENGLISH BELOW** Ayuda a Gabriel Roman a Luchar Contra e… Luis Alejandro Roman Peredo needs your support for Help Gabe Fight Cancer – La Lucha de Gabriel Contra Cancerwww.gofundme.com

Our Putting Surfaces have endured a tough Summer and an equally damaging end to the Hurricane Season. The goal is to be Perfect, Playable and Pretty. We are Playable and my team is determined to reach Perfect and Pretty.

Let’s dive into some of the root causes of where we are currently. My ambition and aggressiveness to provide Perfection this season backfired a bit due to the excessive rain after our July closure. The cultural practices employed to achieve this end involves Vert cutting, topdressing and growth regulators. Our new “Potato Chip” greens served as quite a challenge due to the high ridges and low valleys throughout. Thinning the canopy and reducing the thatch is the correct course of action for performance. The extended wet, cloudy weather provided little to no recovery assistance.

Once the weather gave us a break, we utilized our Nursery Green to patch and repair any weak area heading into season. All was growing, healing and ready for tournament golf in mid to late September. Thean we had back to back Hurricanes. Helene was survivable, Milton was, and is a major thorn in our side. As stated in my previous post, the lack of flushing rains following the on shore winds was devasting. The short rooted repair areas were deprived of proper irrigation for close to three weeks. Up until 2 days ago, we were still dealing with intermittent power outages. When the power goes down for even a minute, our irrigation system shuts down. This is the reason you are seeing our team pull hoses around the greens to ensure proper moisture.

Let’s talk recovery. We will still maintain the effort for optimum playability through the end of this week. We have one more guest event on Thursday, the Niner’s Invitational. Following this tournament we will re-sod these areas, pinpoint any special irrigation needs and continue to upgrade our fertility programs.

It has been a difficult start to the Season. The feed back from the Men’s Invitational and the Women’s Member Guest were very positive. By no means does that satisfy me, or my team. My goal is to get the course to a point of integrity where we can manipulate the performance as we maintain the aesthetics.

Thank you for your support. Stay Classy Stonebridge and rest assured we will prevail.

The attached photos represent the condition of the weak areas on a number of our greens.  The simple explanation is – July and August are our most aggressive months for cultural practices, resulting in thinner less aggressive turf.  We tend to verti-cut and dethatch our greens very diligently during this period.  Areas such as perimeters and mounded surfaces suffer a bit more stress during this process.  We have moved into our growth period.  This is the time of the Summer that we adjust our fertility and push recovery.  We will begin to see a significant difference in color and density throughout the next couple of weeks.  This will continue as we ramp up for Season.  We spent the first part of Summer focusing on what is happening beneath the canopy of the turf, the remainder will be spent on presentation and playability.  Within each green we have at least 4 different micro-environments; the low areas, the perimeters, the mounded surfaces and the flat areas.  The goal is to make them react and play similarly.  Now that we have done the work beneath, we can focus on what your eyes see.  

A side note on the conditions of the Lakes.  We experienced quite an Algae Bloom following the latest Tropical event.  I have been in close contact with our lake contractor and have seen significant improvement over their last two treatments.  I am confident they will continue to make adjustments to ensure the health and appearance of our water bodies.  This will be aided by the installation of our aeration devices in the near future.  

Keeping my nose to the grindstone and focusing on our major events right around the corner, I have neglected to properly communicate our process.  I will re-emphasize my dedication to making sure our owners and guests are aware of our happenings.