From the superintendent’s desk

Hello SunBird members and golfers; we sure have been lucky with a mild and wet winter. Although we could still get a cold snap in February, but I always feel free and clear after the second week! This is particularly nice for me, being my first winter here at SunBird, I wish I could say it’s because of me, but we all know that’s not true. Now for the bad news; it’s been my experience here in Arizona that when we have a mild and wet winter, we will have a long and hot summer. You all are saying, “Don’t we/you always have a long and hot summer in Arizona?” I can hear the Snowbirds saying to themselves, “Yes, we do,” but I gauge this from what kind of spring we have, and I do believe we will have none like the fall we just had. We went hot to cold, and I think we’ll go cold to hot full disclosure. I’m not a meteorologist; I’m basing this on my experience. I will accept the hot winter if the tradeoff was a minimum of frost delays; I hate them, too!

I would like to remind everyone that the golf course is private property and is not for pedestrian use. We have liability issues when non-golfers are using it as a park, not to mention that the golfer on the tee is worried about hitting their shot because someone is in the way! This is not fair for them; it slows the pace of play as well as the safety of said pedestrian. Please respect the posted signs and your fellow SunBird residents. My team and I have posted some more signs stating that the course is private property in areas that were lacking, in case there is any confusion. Thank you!

Hopefully, what we did in January has worked for the duck problem around the lakes. If you are wondering what we did, come and find me and I’ll be happy to explain. If it didn’t, we are looking for some solutions; at this point I’m open to suggestions. I say this because I do have to write this article 20 days in advance, and I wish I could predict that far in advance. If I could, I would have bought Microsoft stocks in the early 90s. I/we know it’s not very pleasant and unfair when your ball changes direction because of the present they left behind for us.

After being here for a winter now, I am starting to recognize where the cattle move around the golf course. I use cattle because they have the same tendencies as a golfer in a cart. You will notice little green and white stakes out on the course. These are placed to move the carts around to different wear areas—please don’t drive over them! I like the clean look of them rather than rope and stakes. They are less upkeep than rope with having to straighten them twice a day.

I am working on a new fountain motor for the lake on #13—thank you to everybody who has helped in the past with donations. This time I am going to work it out with my budget. Don’t get me wrong—we appreciate everyone’s generosity! Hopefully, we already have it up and running by now, but if not, very soon.

Finally, I hope you’ve noticed the team members in the turf care department wearing new winter coats. On their behalf, thank you for your donations, especially David Jones’ mom, all the way out in Pennsylvania, for helping make this happen. Staff morale is important to me—now they’re a little bit warmer.