Palmer Private hasn't gotten the memo

[Ted Cahill]

Watching the Bob Hope and the wall to wall green on the Palmer Private is wince inducing.  Wow, I wonder what their water bills are?  I guess they haven't embraced the "brown is good" ideal.  The Nicklaus Private seems to show some restraint in the rough areas.  The Palmer Private makes Augusta look austere...

[C. Squier]

FIRMNESS shows the culture of the course.....color w/ firmness just proves how much money they have.

[Matthew Rose]

Every year I watch this event on TV and I can never get over that cement-banked canal. Whatever possessed anybody to build a hazard like that is anybody's guess.

It looks even worse when they try to put rocks over the cement.

Possibly the ugliest water hazard in the world.

[Don_Mahaffey]

The canal was there for decades before the course. Part of the irrigation system for ag that brings water from the Colorado river to the valley. Just down stream from PGA west is a storage reservoir that also doubles as a small recreation lake. I'm sure the Coachella Valley water district owns (or has a long term easement) the small piece of land the canal sits on. The designers had no choice but to work with the canal if they wanted a course on that land.

As far as the wall to wall overseed, its been done that way on most valley courses for years now and water has been pretty cheap although that is changing. In the Coachella valley golf maintenance is all about who can pimp out their course the most. 

[jeffwarne]

FIRMNESS shows the culture of the course.....color w/ firmness just proves how much money they have.

Or it's just rye grass that is electric green
it's the freaking desert, it's winter ,and the members want to play off grass


same as Augusta National-every year we read how overwatered it is
rye grass is dark green-it can still play firm
go play a non overseeded course in Augusta in Jan-April and see how it compares-particularly if it's a busy club
dormant, brown, AND soft with no grass because there's no growth to support the traffic
ANGC isn't open after May 15 so they get a few months to shine

[Brent Hutto]

Jeff has a good point. There's brown and firm in the summer and then there brown with remnants of every rainfall since November still squishing around under there in February. Our club doesn't overseed and I'm glad we don't as the loss to transition twice a year is so bad. But by the time May rolls around it sure is nice to hit shots and feel turf under your 7-iron instead of wet, dormant, beat-down grass from last year.

[jeffwarne]

Jeff has a good point. There's brown and firm in the summer and then there brown with remnants of every rainfall since November still squishing around under there in February. Our club doesn't overseed and I'm glad we don't as the loss to transition twice a year is so bad. But by the time May rolls around it sure is nice to hit shots and feel turf under your 7-iron instead of wet, dormant, beat-down grass from last year.

brent is correct
loss to transition is the reason not to overseed
there's zero problem with loss to transition at AGNC (closed) and most desert courses have little to no traffic in the summer
it's all about when you want to shine-or as Brent sees it, the best mix for year round acceptable conditions