Spring has arrived and the grounds staff is excited to get going after a long, chilly winter.  This is the seventh year at Stonebridge for me and my staff.  We have made solid improvements to almost every part of the golf course.  Each year we try to add one more goal to our improvement list.  Last year, the goal we accomplished was cleaning the native areas of the golf course.  We cut down thousands of Tamerisk trees and Russian Olive trees and killed many ugly weeds.  Most of the ugly weed trees are now gone but we still have some work to do with thistles and milk weed.  When this project is finished we hope to have uniform stand of high fescue.

The putting greens were aerified in early April and have healed nicely.  It's nice to get the aerification done early so the greens will be in good shape for the rest of the season.  We will start a bi-annual troubled fairway aerification program in May and October.  We aerify these fairways just like a green and then top dress with sand.  We have done soil profile testing in these areas and have observed an inch and a half of sand on top of the salty soil.  The goal is six inches of sand, however, when we get three inches if sand we should be able to grow traditional grasses.  Right now, the only grass that will germinate and survive is Alkaligrass.  Alkali grass is the turf that is off colored on 1 and 9 of all three courses.  

Our tee boxes took a hit last year due to poor water quality and heavy play.  We are going to aerify and overseed these and that should get us through the season.  We have many small circle type tee boxes at Stonebridge and over time tee boxes of this shape and size tend to get mounded in the center.  Also, the grass on the tee boxes has been overtaken by Creeping Bentgrass and Poa Annua.  We are looking at stripping, leveling and re-grassing with Perennial Ryegrass sod many of these circular teeing areas.  This project will take several years to complete as this will be an "in-house" job.  We will work on one tee per hole at a time to lessen the impact to our customers.

I am looking forward to another great year here at Stonebridge Golf Club.  We had a good winter for the golf course and I'm excited to enjoy great golf course conditions this year.  I would like to thank our golfers for their continued patronage.

Matt Isbell
Golf Course Superintendent 

Stonebridge is excited to introduce our new mobile application.  There is no charge to download the app! There are several exciting benefits to downloading the app.  First and foremost, you will have an accurate GPS yardage system right in your pocket.   Fly over's of each hole will allow you to see where all the hazards are to map out your strategy.  Our food and beverage menu is loaded for review and simple push button calling will allow you to order food as you hit the turn.  Our tee sheet integrates with the new app so you will be able to book tee times directly from your phone.  If you are a facebook user, notify friends and family of your hole in one or other accomplishments on the course with a push of a button.  An interactive scorecard allows you to keep score for yourself or the entire group on your phone.  A news feed will keep you current on events at the course including whether or not we are open or closed for snow.  To download our app click on the link below depending on which phone you have.  

The Ridge Golf Club is set to open June 28!  Click here to read all about the new course.