8/13/21 Update
La Cumbre Country Club • August 12, 2021
Wayne's World Update
Just an update on continuing work on our various projects.
Once again, thank you for your understanding and patience with this work. Todd Eckenrode, the club’s consultant, visited all areas and reviewed the ongoing work. He made some adjustments to the alinement and depths of new teeing areas. He then studied cart path flows, plus entrance and exit points. After reviewing these areas with the contactor, club members, and staff, he approved the work and felt good about the progress.
What members should expect to see in the next couple of weeks:
- Teeing areas on holes 11 and 12 fine gradings and irrigation installation will be completed.
- Monday and Tuesday, the 16th and 17th, Cart path repairs and installation will be completed.
- More path reductions on ten will be completed on the south side, plus areas converted to non-irrigated native areas.
- We will install Piping for a water transfer pipe on the 10th hole.
- Sodding on the 5th hole and cleanup will be completed. Native areas mulched and damaged plants re-planted.
- Teeing should remain the same for two more weeks; after that, we will have a concise tee area on the 11th hole.
- The lower area on the 6th hole could see some sod being installed if deliveries are on time.
Thank you,
Wayne
Good Morning La Cumbre! We are starting to transition from spring to early summer. The property is transitioning too. So, the Greens and Kikuyu are taking on a different look and feel in fairways. Both need constant irrigation, so less roll on both surfaces than in winter. Ball marks and divots repair faster this time of year, but we still need your support in fixing these blemishes from your execution of that perfect shot. This year's weather is very eradicated, and everything seems to be a month to two ahead of historical growth patterns. But all our contractors and material suppliers are a month or two behind. So, the work we have slated for this year will get done, but it looks like the window of June to early September is when this will be completed. On the waterfront, the deliveries of reclaimed have been steady. Again, this came online just as the State and local agencies beat the drought drums. They are looking for a 35% reduction in water usage throughout the system. Agriculture rates are being adjusted way up with the mandated reduction. As this intensifies, different groups will be pointing fingers at each other. Being a private club, they would love to point them at us. With the continued drought, certain tree species show signs of heavy stress and decline. Mainly the Redwoods and Monterey Cypress currently. Using water with lower qualities will only add to this if we do not get heavy winter rains to clean the soils. But the property is in good shape with some excellent additions planned for the season. See you on the course. I'll be somewhere behind Rusty.
Spring has come early this year, and it feels like it started on January 1st! Our greens are trying to produce seed heads, a typical March through April event. Our fairways have good color and are growing. Our native planting areas are trying to bloom, and the bugs are out! Nothing is following our typical patterns. I know we are enjoying some of the best-golfing weather, as the rest of the country is frozen stiff. So, I hope you enjoy the facility, as it may be the best weather days for golf over any place in the United States.
“I don’t use the word ‘sustainability,’” said Wayne Mills, superintendent at La Cumbre CC in Santa Barbara. “I use the words ‘reduced inputs that benefit society.’ Potable water is a fluid people need to sustain life,and we were using it to irrigate turf. If we use reclaimed water, we use less potable water and still employ people, create living wages, and give people a place to enjoy themselves.”
