Fixing the 5th

Remember that power pole near the championship tee on #5?  Well now you see it and now you don't.

With the pole now moved out of the way, we are proceeding with the Master Plan project to rebuild and lengthen the teeing ground on #5. The two aerial images below shows how that teeing ground looks now, and how it will look after.

There will also be some changes in the fairway. Below are a couple of aerial images which show the before and after look of the fairway area.

When this hole was changed to a dogleg back in the early 70's, the fir trees were about 50 feet shorter than they are now.  Obviously the aggressive line over the left edge of the fairway was part of the original intent so this project will restore that fun risk-reward opportunity.  So yes we are fixing the 5th hole and it's going to once again be one of the best short par 4's anywhere. This project will begin in the middle of January 2019.  For a full detailed description of the project, please watch this video.

What's Up??

What have we been up to during this dreary winter?  Well, normally during the winter, we get some cold, frosty days when we can take care of some housekeeping but this year we are wet and warm.   Coming off 2014, the 5th wettest year ever recorded, 2015 is starting out as a contender for wettest ever. Today as the rain came tumbling down, we decided to work on some housekeeping stuff since it looks like our cold frosty days are numbered and before you know it, we will be in the middle of the growing season.

 Yardage plaques are getting painted.

Benches are getting painted and bunker rakes are getting some attention.

You see here a bunker rake handle that has been re-oiled and one that just came off the course.  The unfinished handle has a dark area at the end.  This is where a rubber grip was covering the handle and prevented it from getting bleached out by the sun.  We will no longer have rubber grips on the bunker rake handles.  They will just be simple and classy like the one on the right.  The rubber grips on the handles were really unnecessary and were just another thing that needed replacing periodically. Our handles are real hardwood so they don't splinter and they look good with just a simple finish.

We are almost finished painting the tee markers.

You may not know that we are in charge of the island at Forest Glen Lane.  This week we upgraded the irrigation system in that area.  The old antiquated system had two zones and 5 sprinkler heads.  The new system we just installed has 3 zones and 14 sprinkler heads.   There is no electrical power here but nowadays that doesn't matter as battery operated sprinkler clocks have gotten really amazing in the last decade. This area will be so much better this summer, and we will waste a lot less water since we have better coverage and control.

 On the course you'll notice some new markers in the fairways.  These markers designate the locations of the new Harbottle short course or family tees.  Basically these tee locations add two short courses for the enjoyment of anyone who wants to play from them.  The family tee concept was created to make the game more fun for those just starting to learn but really anyone can play from them.  John Harbottle III was such a supporter of getting young people involved in golf that we have named the two new routes in his name.  There is a separate score card for the new short courses and you can find that in the pro shop once we have all the markers installed.  They have official ratings so don't forget to post your score. There is a blue level one course that is about 3000 yards, and a gold level two course that is about 4000 yards.  If your looking at these markers and wondering why they are where they are, you might be interested to know that we didn't just put them in random areas.  The markers are also valve box covers.

Because our irrigation system runs off a 1953 mainline, we have many valves located right in the middle of the fairway. The 1953 system was a "center row" system; meaning there was simply a row of sprinkler heads down the middle of every fairway.  In fact that system was a "hand" system.  There was only plug-ins for sprinklers and a night waterman would move sprinklers from plug-in to plug-in.   FYI...John Harbottle III was once a night waterman at Tacoma. It's kind of cool to imagine him as a young lad out here in the middle of the night plugging sprinklers into these exact locations.  I've heard that John was very good at this.  It is well known that many a night waterman would spend a great deal of time drinking beer and forget about the sprinklers.  This resulted in over watered soft areas and underwatered dry areas.  That was not John.  Apparently he took the task very seriously and during his tenure as night waterman, the course was exceptionally firm, fast, consistent, and just the right amount of green color.  Would you expect anything less from John?  Anyway I could go on and on but those plug-ins became valves in 1989 and our system today still runs on sprinklers that come off pipe from those valves.  In order to minimize the amount of things in the middle of the fairway that we have to trim around and maintain, we figured whenever possible we would just use one of these valve locations as a place to put the family tee marker.  Everyone should give the Harbottle course a try.  Remember, golf is supposed to be fun and you might be surprised how challenging it is playing a short course when a whole new set of hazards comes in to play.

Our New Home

Above you see a picture of the old "home hole" at Tacoma.  The route depicted is pretty much what every player chooses as they face their second shot on this shortish par 5.  Currently the shot up the middle makes the most sense.  You can hit up this gap from almost any position, and since the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, why wouldn't you hit up the gap?  Contrary to the obvious route of the current "home hole", the new "home hole" at Tacoma will require some decision making.  Check out the diagram below.

Immediately you should notice that first of all the shot up the middle is no longer easy, and the fairways of #9 and #18 merge into one very wide fairway at one point.  This new open area is really not new since up until just 20 years ago, it was always an open area.  If you were on the property this week you would have noticed that we made some significant progress toward returning this area to open fairway terrain.

In order to open this area up, the giant sequoia shown here had to be removed.  This tree was planted in the mid 1980's and really doesn't belong.  First and foremost, the giant sequoia is not a native tree to our region so it should have never been there in the first place.  Secondly, why was it ever planted?  For almost 100 years, this area was open so why shouldn't it be left open?

Anyway, you can see that now it is gone and once again, this area is as it was for almost 100 years.
Now lets discuss how this impacts the strategic play of the "home hole" at Tacoma.  Again, the shot up the middle is no longer an open run up.  The bunker has been shifted to the right and rough has been added on the ridge so that there is two possible landing areas.  Check out this diagram.

If you hit your tee ball to the middle of the fairway, you could go straight toward the hole with a pretty simple shot over the bunker or hit it to the right in the newly restored open area which is even an easier shot, but from there to the green, you have a more difficult angle and it's uphill so your ball will be coming in lower and it will be harder to stop it.  Look here at the shot from the newly restored open area.

You can see that although you have an open shot, is is not the best place to be for approaching this green.  Now look at what you see if you hit it up the left on top of the ridge.

From here you can really see the green, and that this approach shot doesn't require a carry over a bunker.  This is clearly a better place to be, so it will be very tempting to try and get it up on this little plateau if you want to make birdie.  So there you have it.  The secret to playing the new "home hole" is really no secret.  All you need to do is hit a drive up the middle and then hit your second shot up top on the left.  Anyone can do it...................but you must tee off from an appropriate tee for your game!  If you insist on teeing off from tees that are too long for you, this hole will really give you some trouble.  On top of that, if you don't hit your tee shot in the middle of the landing area, you're choice for your second shot gets much more complicated.  Check it out.

If you hit your tee shot right of center, the bailout to the right is much more difficult.  The obvious choice is to just commit to one last good swing for the day and hit it up the left.  The reward warrants the risk.  So now what if you hit your tee shot to the left?

From here, hitting it to the right is just too easy and everyone will probably think less of you (if that's possible) for choosing the easy way out.  After all, now the shot to the left on top of the ridge is a mere 130 yards and from up there you are certain to make birdie, win the 2 bucks and the bragging rights.  Here's how that shot looks today.

No sweat .....................right? Well when the bunker sand is installed, this shot will look a little more difficult but I think you get the point.  It's funny how golfers think.  I mean really .................playing the new "home hole" at Tacoma will be very similar to living life in general.  The shortest route to success is very often the most risky.  The easier, longer way which takes you around the hazards, is definitely safer.   What kind of person are you?  Are you the risk taker that loves the feeling of a birdie so much that taking an occasional snowman is acceptable?  Or are you a safe person?  Are you content taking par every day because you just don't feel like you can handle the hazards?  I confess, I'm the fool who will go for it every time.  But I have nothing to loose, except maybe a couple of bucks.  I'm not very good at golf and I'm okay with that.  The interesting thing will be to see what someone does here when there's a lot on the line.  Maybe you're standing here "one down" during the final round of the Club Championship, and your opponent has just hit a perfect drive a few yards beyond you.  You're up...................what will you do?

Project Update

Last week we left off on 17 greenside bunkers.  This bunker on the left side turned out awesome.  You can see by the area of disturbance on the left side of this picture, that the construction of this bunker left a big scar.  Well this bunker used to be huge so to make it look like it was never there, we had to really chase out all the mounding that was around it.  I'm telling you, it is going to be a beautiful green complex when we're done.  Removing all the mounding generated quite a bit of fill dirt that was used to finish the subgrade of the 7th tee.

Here's how that turned out.  Yes...........the black tee is lower in elevation than the blue and white tee, and many of you have expressed that it shouldn't be like that.  Why is it like that???? Because that's how it turned out since that's what worked best given the the topography.  Is it unusual????  Maybe but I think it's fantastically unusual and will make for some fun golf.  

So now on to the 10th green.  Remember the challenges we were faced with here given the mainline pipes running alongside this green.  Relocating the main water lines would have been costly.  The decision was to design around them instead of moving them to facilitate the design.  Our brilliant design team came up with this.

Now, this new smallish bunker fronting the green only looks like it's right in front of it.  There is actually about 30 feet of approach there so if you hit a shot to the correct yardage, you should be able to nestle one up to a front pin location.  That is of course if you are hitting a lofted shot from the fairway which of course means you hit from an appropriate tee that has left with you a short approach shot.  If you insist on hitting from a tee that does not fit your game, you may have to hit a long iron or hybrid up the left side and roll it on.  The left side bunker has been removed and the fairway cut grass will be expanded to allow this option.  The 10th hole at Tacoma has just turned really interesting.  I just love this new green complex.

All the fairway turf in front of the 10th green has been relocated to the left side of the 8th green as you can see here.  In addition, this next pic shows that we are also sodding around the 5th green.

That whole area between 5 and 8 green is coming along nicely.

The blending of the teeing grounds on #6 and #18 took on a new look this week.  The subgrade was set and now you can really imagine how it will look and play.  This is the view from 18 black tee.  If you are one of those that thought you weren't going to like this idea, go check it out today.  It might just be the coolest thing I have ever seen in golf.

This picture was taken from between 9 and 18 fairway.  This view has been unobstructed by trees for the last couple of decades.  Just yesterday, we removed some of the new trees here as the plan continues to mow these two fairways as one in this area.  If you look really close at this picture, you can also make out that there is a person up in the tree near the first tee.  Unfortunately that is an arborist removing that old oak tree.  Here's one of the last pictures taken of this tree.

I am saddened that this tree needed to be removed but it suffered some stress in the last wind event that had caused it to lean excessively.  

You can see here by the heaved up curbing that the tree was starting to fall.

It was clear to me and my arborist that it was destined to fall over very soon and given it's location over a traffic area, clearly removal was the best decision.  

"Tee it Forward"

An interesting initiative has been proposed by both the PGA of America and the U.S.G.A. (United States Golf Association).  It’s called “Tee it Forward”, and it is a proposed movement that is in perfect alignment with our Green Committee recommendations in regard to playing from an appropriate set of tees.  For several years now I’ve written on this topic and I don’t wish to “beat a dead horse”, but this new approach is a little different so it’s worth mentioning.  In the past, the USGA has published the guidelines whereas golfers need to break 90 in order to step back to a longer set of tees, or that simply  they must play in under 4 hours.  They’re argument is that the game is much more fun if your taking less strokes and taking less time.  I personally couldn’t agree more.  Unfortunately, people are still not moving up so the new “Tee it Forward” initiative is now underway and it runs this month from the 5^th – 17^th.  For that time period you are encouraged to play from a set of tees that is aligned with your ability and it’s determined by your average driving distance.  They’ve created a chart that correlates driving distance and course yardage.  If you know your driving distance, you can look at this chart and see what length of course you should be playing to maximize your enjoyment of the game.  I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that according to this chart, your average driving distance should be 220 yards to play from our white tees, and 250 yards to play from our blue tees.  You can easily check your driving distance by deducting the yardage of your shot into the green following your tee shot, from the overall yardage of the hole.  The Green Committee embraces this initiative and encourages all of you to check your average driving distance to see if your playing from an appropriate set of tees.  If you find that you should move up, give it a try this month from the 5^th – 17^th.  Click here for more details about the "Tee it Forward" initiative and the complete chart which correlates driving distance with recommended 18-Hole yardages.