8/4/21 Update
La Cumbre Country Club • August 4, 2021
Reclaimed water project update for the week of 8/4/21
Thank you for your understanding and patience with our course projects, especially the ladies and their guests who played yesterday. We had quite a bit going on during this event with two road crossings and work on the 6th hole. Thank you again.
Everything we hoped to get completed this past week was completed. So, we are on track!
Here’s what is next:
- Lash Contractors will be building a concrete vault in Calle Los Amigos to install the control valves for water delivery. (This is off-site and will not affect our golf course.)
- 11 and 12 tee areas will be under repair, with sod and irrigation to be removed. This is in preparation for the piping installation, and tee modification per the Todd Eckenrode approved plan.
- The 11th Hole tee box will likely play from a temporary short tee location starting August 10th for two weeks.
- Piping will be installed from 5 to 4 then across the 14th fairway. So, expect some disruption on the 14th hole as it may need to play as a par three on some days.
- Leveling, grading, and clean-up will follow all work after the pipeline installation.
So, lots going on, stay tuned! Thanks again!
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.”
