Golf course maintenance
Sand is ruining Camaloch Golf Course fairways
Dear Editor:
Every year the Camaloch Golf Course spreads sand on our fairways to eliminate muddy conditions in the winter. This sanding program costs the community of Camaloch $50,000 per year This money would be better spent on needed improvements in the community.
I contacted several soil scientists and was told that this program is actually detrimental to growing turf in the summer. Apparently, the sand builds layers in the soil that cause the roots of the grass to dry out and die in the summer months.
The result has been rockhard, grassless fairways in the summer. There are areas on the course that will not support healthy turf, no matter how much water and fertilizer is applied. Nutrient run-off increases. Sand prematurely fills the retention ponds and mounds up under the turf creating “rolling” on the fairways. My contacts say this process is not reversible without intensive fairway reconditioning.
Camaloch motives for this sanding program are to improve play in the winter. Trying to improve winter play by sacrificing the quality of the course in the summer makes no business sense.
So few people pay to play in the winter. Sadly, the course is still muddy, despite budgeting over $220,000 since 2003.
No other local course has this type of sanding program. Worse yet, I was told that this sanding program would continue indefinitely.
It seems Camaloch manages the golf course by a guess and a by golly, instead of solid technical information. My community needs that $50,000 per year to fix up our other neglected community assets like roads and ditches.
Driving through the front gate of the Camaloch community you may think you have entered a sand and gravel pit. When you see that sand ask yourself if it is really money well spent.
John Schultz Camano Island
