Cost-Effective Solutions for Moisture Management: Revitalizing Redlands Country Club Greens

With more than 125 years of history embedded in its course, the Redlands Country Club is among one of the most storied clubs in Southern California. Over that span of time, it’s gone through several renovations, numerous grounds crews and countless maintenance routines. In 2019, Mike Gracie was hired as the new superintendent and implemented plans to modify the pushup greens to improve playability.

The greens had issues with rooting and water management in the native soils, leading to spongy conditions. Without a budget for a remodel, Gracie needed a cost-effective solution that would move water through the top profile of the soil, but also hold water deeper in the root system to promote healthy growth. Through consultation with Profile Products, DryJect^® and Simplot, Redlands was able to develop a maintenance program that would mitigate the moisture retention issues to produce fast, firm greens.

Developing a New Maintenance Routine

To address the drainage issue, the team developed a maintenance solution employing Profile Field & Fairway. Field & Fairway is an inorganic ceramic particle with 74% internal pore space that helps resist compaction, manage moisture and facilitate healthy root systems that leave turf less prone to disease. The product was applied with DryJect, a high‐speed, water-based injection system designed to blast aeration holes through the root zone to fracture the soil while simultaneously filling the holes to the surface with Field & Fairway.

Field & Fairway levels everything out — moisture conditions, compaction issues, it evens the playing field, and you don’t have to babysit little areas.

Will Reardon

Improving Playability for Members

Reardon’s team applied the first round of Profile Field & Fairway in early 2021 and will continue with bi-annual maintenance installations. Gracie plans on running comprehensive tests in 2023 to measure the course improvements, but the early data on moisture has proven that his practices are working, and members are taking notice.

“Visually, it’s leveled out more. We used to have really wet spots and really dry spots on the same greens,” said Gracie. “Before, we were seeing a 30 to 40% difference in the moisture level. Now it’s more like a 15 to 20% gap. Users say the greens feel firmer. The only thing we’ve been doing differently is Profile, so I can attribute it to that.”

Prolonging the Life of the Greens

In addition to improving the playability, the Field & Fairway applications have also helped Gracie postpone a larger remodel. While the greens have performed well on the native soils for years, the enhancements from Field & Fairway have prolonged its life even further.

If we weren’t putting Profile in, we would be fighting costly decisions on how to make our greens better. It was the best fit for what we needed.

Mike Gracie