SADDLEBROOKE RANCH GOLF COMMUNITY – FORE CADDIE NEWSLETTER

December has arrived and we are almost midway through the holiday season! Please remember that credit book monies expire on 12-31-2023.

The pro shop holiday sale week is Tuesday, December 6-Monday, December 12. Exclusive discounts will be in effect the entire week! Stay in tune with the Forecaddie to keep up to date with everything Pro Shop and golf course related. In the sections following, you will find all the information relating to this month in golf, as well as contact information for our golf associations and our Greens Committee.

Pro Shop Schedule Pro Shop Hours – Open 30 minutes before the first tee time and 1 hour before shotguns.

The pro shop closes at 4:30pm. Pro shop staff will carry the pro shop cell phone (520-561-1196) until 5:30.

Staff are available until one hour before sunset.

First tee time: 12-1 to 12-31: 8:00am

Last tee time: 12-1 to 12-31: 4:30pm

Shotguns: 8:00/1:00

Rate Periods: 12-1 to 12-31:

Prime 8:00 – 11:22

Midday 11:30 – 1:22

Twilight 1:30 – 3:30

Super Twilight 3:30 – Sunset Golf in December 2023

 

The Ranch Forecaddie Free Monthly Golf Clinic Every month Mike and Ken will conduct a free golf clinic. All residents and their guests are welcome to attend, and there is no cost. Please sign up in the Pro Shop. The staff have a book behind the counter with all the scheduled clinics that you can sign up for. You are welcome to attend as often and as many as you like! The clinics will cover basic techniques and mechanics of each topic. Our golf clinics are great for learning a new skill or brushing up a skill that needs some work. The next clinic will be in December and cover putting. It will be held on Monday, December 18th at 2:00pm at the practice putting green. Please see your Chelsea home page event calendar for the full clinic schedule.

Golf Maintenance Schedule A maintenance plan is put into place at the beginning of the year. Variance in weather and agronomic conditions may require changes to the schedule.

December Maintenance Schedule

The Bermuda base is now dormant and mostly a golden-brown color. In order to keep heat in the turf, to help it to stay pliable to resist damage from cart traffic, and to make it a beautiful green, we will be painting the fairways, greens, and tees every three weeks. During painting week, a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday will have tee times starting one hour later. We will continue closing one hole per nine to cart traffic to help maintain the quality of the turf. We will also continue our program of resting the natural turf one week per month, except in December and January, when it will be rested for two weeks in those months due to the slowing of the growth rate of the rye overseed, and the heavy use of the driving range. Back Nine morning nine-hole times will not be available on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on a year-round basis to allow maintenance time to complete weekly tasks. Golfing News Golf Course Access Dear Residents, as much of the community activities have been closed for precautionary measures to help reduce exposure to the COVID-19 virus, many of you have taken to walking as a way of exercise and to get out of the house. Please remember that for your safety, we do not allow joy riding, walking, biking, jogging, etc. on the golf course AT ANY TIME. Only golfers, golf staff, or emergency or other authorized service vehicles are allowed on the golf course and paths. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation! Eliminate Potential for Cup Damage When using a “ball grabber” attached to the end of a putter to extract a ball from the cup, please remove the flagstick first to eliminate the potential for damage to the edge of the turf surrounding the cup. With the green dormant during this time of year it is important to carefully extract the ball from the cup even when using your hand. Stretch out your hand and extend two fingers into the cup to retrieve your golf ball. Thank you. Your efforts will help to keep the edges of the hole crisp and more playable! Page 3 The Ranch Forecaddie Golfing News Cont. Cart Rules The following rules shall apply to all types of golf carts, both rental and privately-owned:

• DRIVE ON CART PATH until even with ball, then enter turf at 90° when gates are not present.
• SCATTER ACROSS TURF until ball is on green. · EXIT TURF at 90° to cart path.
• REMAIN ON CART PATH on all Par-3 holes.
• STAY 25 FEET from tees and greens.
• DO NOT DRIVE around the sides or back of greens. · DO NOT DRIVE in the desert.
• DO NOT ENTER private resident property to retrieve golf balls.

Ball Marks Our greens have been in service for almost 3 years now. Aaron and his crew are doing an excellent job keeping them smooth and fast. To do our part as golfers, we should make every effort to keep ball marks repaired! Ball marks that are repaired immediately heal faster and create less surface disruption resulting in a smooth green. Let us do our part to keep the greens looking good! Please remember to stay in the habit of finding and repairing ball marks on the greens to help keep them rolling smoothly. Pace of Play Please follow these simple tips to improve pace of play without having to rush around the course:

1. Be prepared to play your shot while waiting for others to hit, so you can play immediately without delay. This includes shots played while on the putting green.
2. Clean and replace your club in the bag; and record your score, at the next tee, not at the green.
3. Hit a provisional ball when appropriate, and limit searches for lost balls to 3 minutes. Players in the group that can hit safely should do so; while those that cannot, should help search.
4. Limit socializing to periods when you are prepared to hit and there is a wait to safely hit. Have fun on the course, and keep your play efficient, so all can experience an enjoyable pace of play! Cart Damage to the Course Without question, cart traffic is the number one cause of damage to the turf on the course.

Please do your best to limit the time your cart is on the turf. One effortless way to do that is by staying on the cart path until even with your drive. This simple tip can reduce wear and tear exponentially because entering the turf area early is the most common mistake made by golfers in terms of course damage. Please try to follow this approach as the wear and tear just after the Plum indicates that a respectable number of golfers are NOT doing this!

There have been comments/concerns regarding the wet areas around the golf course. I was asked to give some reasoning for this. Irrigation is always a constant focus for us. I first want to start with a weather comparison of this year to last.

• From 6/1/22 to 11/20/22 we received 12.6” of rain with an ET of 42”
• From 9/1/22 to 11/20/22 we received 2.4” of rain with an ET of 16” 2023
• From 6/1/23 to 11/20/23 we received 4.1” of rain with an ET of 48.8”
• From 9/1/23 to 11/20/23 we received .85” of rain with an ET of 18.8”

As shown above, in comparison, in 2022 we received 8.5” more rain from 6/1 to 11/20/22 than we have in 2023 for the same dates.

In 2022, from 9/1 to 11/20/22 we received 1.77” more than in 2023.

Consequently, we have been much more dependent on our irrigation system this year. An 8.5” difference in rainfall might not seem like much but it is huge.

Facts to consider Paradise Valley Country Club, one of the most highly regarded private clubs in the state, with an almost unlimited budget, did a complete irrigation system renovation a couple year back. They worked closely with the Toro irrigation company and some of the best irrigation consultants in the state/country. Their goal was to attain an 80% irrigation efficiency across the course, which would be one of the highest efficiency ratings in the entire country. I spoke with the Toro irrigation rep a couple of weeks ago. Toro’s estimate is that the “average” golf course attains 60% efficiency if they work really hard at it. An older course like ours can hope to attain 50%-60%. That being said, we do work hard, and we have over 2,500 irrigation heads on the course. We make irrigation adjustments daily in the central computer, repair, replace sprinklers and their nozzles, and adjust the sprinkler’s arcs. This is a non-stop effort to maintain our system.

The common question is why are you watering so much? If we do not water and we lose grass in the dry areas, we will have no grass in those spots this winter and next summer. There’ll be no recovery until April at the earliest; and most likely, we’d have to sod those areas. Bullet point reasons for wet areas besides the actual irrigation system’s capabilities.

• Varying soil types and conditions across the golf course. The course does not have uniform soil types across the entire golf course. These different areas allow varying rates of infiltration, and one sprinkler might cover several types of soil: caliche, clay, sand, and gravel.
• Seasonal adjustments – In September and October we had several weeks of warm days and cool nights. This forced us to water the hot areas. With the cooler nights there is less water used by the turf and lost by evaporation, which in turn caused our high areas to be dry and the low areas to be wet.
• The average life of a golf course irrigation system is 20 years, and our course is closing in on 17 years since construction. Our components are starting to wear out.
• Valves do not function properly – they do not close down all the way letting water seep out of the sprinkler heads.
• The gear drives that make the sprinkler turn/rotate are wearing out, some might turn slow or not turn at all, causing the sprinkler to water in one spot only.
• Each sprinkler has “stops” inside that controls how far each sprinkler can turn side to side (arc). As these stops wear out, the sprinkler can turn more than it is supposed to, allowing the sprinkler to water where it is not supposed to.
• The actual nozzles in each sprinkler are made of plastic; and as this wears out, the distribution of the nozzles becomes uneven. · Communicating and working with the irrigators to stop watering like they did in the summer. We cannot create wet spots because those guys are running the overhead sprinklers, so instead we need to use the small portable sprinklers or hoses. Ideally, when we build another nine holes we can then go through and close nine holes each summer and update the irrigation heads and valves. In the meantime, we are working on an as-needed basis to switch out irrigation heads, parts, and valves.

Medical Flag Usage Since the peak of COVID, medical flag usage has increased. Along with this higher usage comes greater confusion regarding how the flag may be used.

Below are listed the current parameters for medical flag use.

1. A state disability placard or doctor’s note is required for access to a flag.
2. Players using a flag are required to share a cart unless they use a single rider cart, or their disability requires social distancing.
3. The flag allows the player to drive on holes close to cart traffic, as well as par three holes.
4. Carts MUST be kept 25 feet from tees, bunkers and greens.
5. Carts MAY NOT be driven on the sides or backs of the greens.
6. Carts SHOULD NOT be parked at the entrance to greens.
7. Flag use is not allowed when the entire course is cart path only due to weather or other maintenance concerns. 8. The 90 degree rule should be followed, and carts should exit the turf when the ball is on the green complex. Please follow all cart rules to help keep the golf course in good playing condition for all players!