October 2020
Tee Box Seeding
It has been an exciting few months of capital projects along with our standard agronomic practices at The Golf Club at Rio Vista. We hope you have enjoyed watching the progress on the golf course as much as we have.
As you may have read in our First Annual Rio Vista Insider, reseeding the tee boxes on the golf course was a project scheduled for spring that was delayed due to the Solano County Shelter at Home Order. To comply with the County health order, only minimum maintenance practices were allowed by essential staff to protect the asset during those 6 ½ weeks.
Once reopening was permitted, warmer weather had arrived, and we had missed the spring window for reseeding the tees. The project was deferred until the weather was conducive for optimal seed germination. With the cooler climate months of the Fall upon us, we are now within a window of time most conducive successful fulfillment of this important agronomic practice.
As many of you have observed, a hybrid Bermuda sod trial was completed on the white and green tee boxes of holes 5 and 13. This is a warmer-weather grass so we will be evaluating it on those holes as well as in a section of the fairway on hole 17.
The remainder of the tee boxes will be reseeded with a blend of perennial rye grass. This will be a gradual process, so not all holes will be done at once. However, as tee box work begins you will notice the tee boxes roped off in effort to control traffic to allow for an optimal “grow in” environment. In the interim, temporary tees will be designated as near as possible to the location of the tee color you normally play.
For those of you who are curious about the process, here is basic summary of how this is fulfilled. Each tee box will be prepped and aerified. Some of the cores from aerification will be dragged back in and the seed will be generously distributed. The tees will then be top-dressed, fertilized, and watered frequently to provide the correct moisture conditions as well as protect the seed until it “pops”.
Again, this will be an ongoing process over the course of the next several months, so we appreciate your patience and we ask you to please stay off the tee boxes once roped off. We understand playing off the temporary tees is certainly not ideal, however this short term sacrifice will be well worth it in the long-term when you can return to teeing it up on the plush green grass beneath your feet.
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-Scott Gaston, Assistant General Manager