Pasatiempo before and after the recent northern CA rain

[Joe_Tucholski]

Joe - The charts show how colors correlate to slopes - look at the legend on the bottom.  I think 3% is considered a normal maximum slope for a hole location (here is one reference http://www.aimpointgolf.com/Documents/TheFineLine.pdf ).  All of the orange and red colored areas are above 3%.  On the 8th green it does not appear there is any area in which one could place a hole on a slope of less than 3%.
On many other greens the areas are extremely limited.

Yeah I did infer the colors somehow relate to a slope, what I was saying is without a scale I didn't see a whole lot of value.  Basically I was saying I wanted to know the scale.  Looking closer it appears there is some sort of scale at the bottom with more useful info that I can't really read.  It looks like the darkest red is 6 degrees which would be 10.5ish% slope!!!  The yellow looks like it's 2.5 degrees or 4ish% slope!!!  With those numbers I'm wondering if I'm reading or calculating something wrong.

[David_Elvins]

t looks like the darkest red is 6 degrees which would be 10.5ish% slope!!!  The yellow looks like it's 2.5 degrees or 4ish% slope!!!  With those numbers I'm wondering if I'm reading or calculating something wrong.

Probably not!

[Bill Seitz]

This is a prime example why the golf industry needs to take water conservation seriously and get creative with solutions. This will only become more commonplace going forward, and not just in California, but in most places around the country.

Mr. Doak may eventually chime in on this, but I recall Tom saying that part of the problem that Pasatiempo is/was having is that they WERE serious about water conservation, and that prior to this massive drought, they had reduced their water usage fairly dramatically (like 50% or sometihng).  But when the drought hit, essentially their allotment reduced by 50% from that new baseline.  So they were basically limited to 25% of the amount of water they had been using not too long ago.  If that's the case, then that seems like a major DISINCENTIVE  to get creative and manage water use wisely, aside from the pure cost savings of doing so.  

[Joe_Tucholski]

This is a prime example why the golf industry needs to take water conservation seriously and get creative with solutions. This will only become more commonplace going forward, and not just in California, but in most places around the country.

Mr. Doak may eventually chime in on this, but I recall Tom saying that part of the problem that Pasatiempo is/was having is that they WERE serious about water conservation, and that prior to this massive drought, they had reduced their water usage fairly dramatically (like 50% or sometihng).  But when the drought hit, essentially their allotment reduced by 50% from that new baseline.  So they were basically limited to 25% of the amount of water they had been using not too long ago.  If that's the case, then that seems like a major DISINCENTIVE  to get creative and manage water use wisely, aside from the pure cost savings of doing so.  

I'm glad they decided to drill a well instead of wasting water.

[DFarron]

I played Pasatiempo on Thanksgiving morning - a great experience and fabulous course but to be honest it was easily the worst conditions I've seen at a world-class course.

There were bare patches all over the fairways and in the rough. My guess is that it was at least a week since the fairways were cut for at least a week The greens were extremely soft but rolled ok. Areas off the fairways were covered in weeds.

Lest this sounds like someone setting impossible standards and whinging when they aren't met, I'm happy to post photos if you would like!

My lasting impression is of a club without pride - which I hope is an unfair one.

Pasatiempo is a sensational golf course, but at a rack rate of $260 (I paid $150 online) they need to do much much better. I'd like to play it again because the shots are so much fun, but unless I hear of drastic improvement I wouldn't on principle.

Chris-I know a lot of members at Pasatiempo, they really do care. The members see themselves as very progressive in their stance on water and "brown being the new green". Cliff notes version is that Scotts Valley, the village east of the club, will not sell their run off water to the club and it runs directly by the golf course and is dumped into the Pacific. Scotts Valley is currently negotiating to sell the water to Pasatiempo, but needs a clause so that if they need this water in the future they can get out of the contract to sell.

[Patrick_Mucci]

I believe that Pasatiempo has ameliorated the water issue by contracting to purchase effluent water in the near future