Drought etiquette

The City of Folsom in conjunction with the State of California has mandated a 32% water reduction for our potable water use and 25% reduction in our ground water use.

Please use caution by keeping golf carts out of any 'brown' areas in the rough. Red and white stakes mark the entry and exit points from the cart path to the fairway. After entering the fairway, please remain in the fairway until you reach the cart exit signs and exit at that point to the red and white stake and onto the cart path. Please remember, ALL PAR 3's are CART PATH ONLY as well as hole number 5 and 10.

Number 6



Number 3



Number 8


By reducing water in these "out of play" areas we will be able to meet our 32% water reduction and be part of the solution to reduce water consumption in large turf areas in California.

Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy these fast and firm conditions!

Rodney Muller,
Superintendent

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Bunker Project Resumes in 2015

Weather in December postponed our bunker project until recently. We will be working on hole number 14 green-side bunkers until completion.





Please treat any bunker under construction as "ground under repair" and please avoid walking in and around the construction area.

Thank you

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Location:E Natoma St,Folsom,United States

Much More Than "Adding A Little Sand"

We have started work on one of six more bunkers to be renovated. Here is a good photo of how much a bunker edge can change through regular maintenance and play.

This is number 10 green-side bunker. The original bunker lip was located by cutting back the sand/turf layer until the soil lip was found.



I marked on the photo to illustrate the the first step of our renovation- establish the original footprint of each bunker.

Again, each bunker will have Klingstone liquid spray-on liner, new drainage, sand and minor sod work.

Thank you

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Location:Haddington Dr,Folsom,United States

Verti-cut clippings

Vertical mowing on greens helps remove much more material than regular mowing. It is more aggressive and is usually done bi-weekly during peak growing season.
How much more material is removed? This picture is material from 9 green, small putting green, 1 green and 2 green.  Generally, normal mowing produces 1-2 pounds of clippings per green.

Clippings from 4 greens

Verti-cut blade unit

The benefits?  Vertical mowing removes excessive leaf-tissue, thatch and reduces grain.  It promotes healthy turf and healthy turf needs fewer inputs like fertilizer and water.

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Location:Empire Ranch Golf Club

Home Landscape and Lawn Care Symposium is TODAY!

Follow this link to sign up.  Or just come on by.  Event starts at 6:00 pm and will continue until 7:30 pm.

http://professionalmaintenance.eventbrite.com/

Hamburgers, chips, drinks and beer will be provided.

Thank you,
Rodney Muller

Home Landscape and Lawn care Symposium

Empire Ranch Men's and Women's Golf Club Members:

Please join us for an evening of food, education and camaraderie. Ewing Irrigation and Acme Saw will be here with representatives demonstrating professional products and services.

Ewing Irrigation specializes in landscape products, landscape irrigation, golf and industrial products. Ewing will present their line of professional landscape lighting and outdoor audio products, fertilizer formulations for lawncare and irrigation management products and techniques.

Acme Saw sells and services commercial grade lawncare equipment. Acme will cover everything from spring tune-ups, blade sharpening and Winterization for your small engines. Everything from handheld blowers, power trimmers and self-propelled lawn mowers will be on display.

What? You hire a professional service to take care of your lawn. Well then all you have to do is educate yourself on the products your turf technician should be using so you get the most for your money.

Don’t miss this event. Empire Ranch Golf Club wants to let you in on our little secret and give you an alternative to shopping at a “big box” store.

Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and drink will be provided. Brent Cohen and Victoria Bruss have also donated a KEG of beer for this event... and it's totally FREE!

The Event will be held in the Empire Ranch Maintenance Facility June 12th from 6pm - 7:30pm.

Please sign up for this event through Eventbrite so I can have a head count for food. Just follow the link below.

http://professionalmaintenance.eventbrite.com/
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Location:Empire Ranch Golf Club

Bunker Project Update

We are down to the final bunker on hole #1.  The bottom of the bunker needs to be raised to drain properly.   During the process of excavating soil for the bunker our tractor lost reverse gear and needed to be taken to Sacramento Tractor for a major repair.

As soon as we get the tractor back to Empire Ranch we will complete our final bunker in the first phase of our bunker renovation.   Thank you.

More Course Improvements Coming

We will begin repairing and sealing the asphalt cart paths April 1st and 2nd.  We will have cart traffic regulated in areas throughout the course, so please use caution during this process.

Please use golf etiquette when approaching crews working on the course.  Before hitting a ball, get the attention of the worker by waiving and letting them know you are approaching them with your shot.  And as always, yell FORE!

Where did the term 'fore' originate?

FORE!

Aerification time

I can not think of a time when so many complements have been made about how great the greens are right now.  Trust me when I say, our staff does not get tired of hearing compliments on course conditions.  But....

Mark your calendars for our spring greens aerification.  April 2nd and 3rd.  April 2nd we will start at 12:00 PM on the front 9.  Wednesday April 3rd we will finish the back 9 starting at 5:00 AM.  Please, no back 9 play on Wednesday.

We will aerify and verticut greens to remove as much thatch as possible.  Fertility has been increased at this time and we should see greens returning to normal in 14-18 days if not sooner with excellent weather conditions.

Tee's have already been aerified, seeded, topdressed and fertilized and recovered nicely.

Here is a great communication article for golfers that is put out by the GCSAA.  Please read.

Aerification: Sometimes it's good to vent

Thank you.

Wood Duck Nest Box

I received a call last week from a father and son who wanted to install some Wood Duck boxes on the course.  They told me they had been golfing at Empire Ranch and saw Wood Ducks on the pond near 16 green.  After some discussion, I thought this was a good idea to install the boxes as it fits well with our Audubon Certification and creates outreach and education to youth- so I agreed to help them. This is also a class project for the son and he will be monitoring the boxes on a regular basis.

He brought us three Wood Duck boxes that he purchased online and assembled himself.  With the help of Seth Siebel, who mounted and located them on the course, we hit the prime nesting season for these water fowl.

The nesting boxes are located at the pond on hole 3, 9/10 and 16.  Please observe and report any Wood Duck sightings as they happen.  

Interested in learning more about the Audubon International ACSP for Golf Courses?  Try this link.

http://www.auduboninternational.org/acspgolf

Wood Duck pair

Wood Duck box at pond on 9/10 tee.

Bunker Update...

• Green-side bunkers on number 9 were finished the week of March 22nd.  
• Green-side bunker on number 7 will be completed by March 29th.
• Green-side bunkers on number 1 and 2 will be sprayed with Klingstone (bunker liner) on March 28th and will be completed by April 5th.

Santiago coring out the bunker sand.  Santiago works at Granite Bay CC and we were fortunate to have him excavating the bunkers.

Viliulfo is spraying the Klingstone bunker liner while Ildefonso, Rick and Eric apply a light coat of sand.

The sod goes down by Rick, Eric and Seth.  Jose and Saul add our new bunker sand and rake smooth.

The finished product.

Wildlife sightings this fall

Some of the wildlife sightings this past week have been our River Otter, Deer, Coyote, Hawk, Heron, Egret, Duck and even a Mountain Lion. One sighting I have not witnessed in the past week are the 50-60 Turkey that have been roaming the course early in the morning. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!




















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Location:Brae Ct,Folsom,United States