Just joined the club and played a quick 9 hole twilight round today with my son. We had the entire course to ourselves and the sunset and weather were beautiful. Tough track. Can't wait to get out there tomorrow. Anyone else here a member?

Yes. It's too hot to play

Is it in better shape? Only played it a few times in last two years, and most muni courses I play are in Better shape. I heard they got a new Super earlier this year?

To hot to fish,
To hot for golf,
and too cold at home.

Mark Chestnut

It's been in good shape every time I have played. Walter does a good job.

Ok, not in bad shape, but for the price and prestige of the Traditions, I thought it would be as nice as like Blackhorse or other comparable $80+ per round or more courses. The greens were okay, but fairways had lots of bad spots with mud and no grass. Some tee boxes were not great. Maybe the over irrigation was the cause.

played it 3 weeks ago and it was in fantastic shape

I was near there today and the fairways are pretty burnt up. Pretty brutal ask to try and keep everything watered right now. Greens looked great though.

Any idea what they did to remedy the bad soil?

Tanner and his crew are working their tails off to keep the golf course alive. This guy needs a break! (RAIN). He'll be the first to admit that he can't replace mother nature. The water that Traditions uses to irrigate the course is free water, and has a heavy salt content. Not ideal in the long run. According to the powers that be, the course needs a good heavy rain to flush all of the junk out of the soil.

It's obvious that the drought we are currently going through is extreme when you see Yaupon bushes and Cedar trees dying daily. They are not alone. The oak tree on the first tee is dead, as well as the large one behind 9 green. They too are not alone, but are the most obvious, and a some point will be a hazard due to falling limbs.

Is Traditions still member only/guest invite?

El_duderino said:

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Any idea what they did to remedy the bad soil?

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They can't really do anything to change the soil.

I've heard discussions of sand capping the course, but as described to me that would be a 3-year process with maybe a third of the holes being unplayable during that time. And probably more expensive than the club would accept. There would probably have to be a capital assessment.

And even then, I'm not sure if that would fix things long term -- adding a layer of sand to the high clay soil isn't necessarily going to fix the drainage problem:

Sand Capping

Tanner is doing a lot more verticutting and sand top dressing -- and that seems to be helping (or it was before the current heat wave).

Tanner is a great guy, so glad to hear he is doing great things at traditions. He was the assistant at Spanish Oaks before he went to Houston Oaks and he really learned a lot under our super, who is a legend in the game. I actually bought a set of irons off him that he got from his PGA tour player buddy when he got a new set off the tour van.

DeBoss said:

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Is Traditions still member only/guest invite?

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yes

I was introduced to him as Walter I guess he prefers tanner now.

From the "Sand Capping" link....

"People do not always realize that sand capping must be accompanied with adequate surface drainage and subsurface drainage in low-lying areas. One golf course I visited this summer had sand capped a flat site with only a few catch basins in low depressions. Between the lack of slope, the underlying heavy clay soil, and the 6-inch sand cap, the fairways were saturated at the sand-clay interface and black layer was prevalent. Add to that irrigation water with moderate salinity and just several years after course construction the turf is dying due to very high soil salinity. There is no avenue for water and salts to exit the system."

Sand capping would seem to be a poor solution given the high salinity of B/CS water.

"There would probably have to be a capital assessment."

Trinity, I'm not sure that would happen. There have been no assessments to my knowledge after the greens were re-done in 2014/15 (somewhere in that vicinity) and no assessment when the bunkers were re-done a few years after that.

In general terms, it is my understanding that although Traditions is a member course, it is not owned by the members, therefore, there have been no assessments. That is not to say that the owners could go ahead and assess the members for capital work, they just haven't done it yet. Usually member owned clubs and very high end clubs will assess their members for capital work. I want to say that Dallas National is going to do an entire course renovation next year, and that the members will be assessed somewhere in the $20K range.

As far as sand capping the entire course, I have heard that that might be under consideration. I would think that they could do 6 holes per year with minimal interruption for three years it would take to do it. #13 was closed for six weeks earlier this year to replace all of the sod.

Yeah verticutting is a huge part of bermuda thriving, I was just curious if there'd been other things done to improve it. Awesome to hear what they've been able to do out there.

I thought they had paspalum It takes salt very well. Same thing they have at Palmilla and Galveston country club.

when I played 3 or so weeks ago, I noticed the tee boxes were a different type of grass, with a unique aerification/cutting pattern to them. Was told by my member friend it is basically like taking a pizza cutter at an angle every 12" or so and running it across to create a small channel for water to run down deeper. It was interesting.

The tee boxes are Platinum Paspalum. The lines you are seeing are from the earthquake that cut channels and fractures the soils.

Yes, the tee boxes are all sodded with Paspalum. The practice range was also converted to Latitude Bermuda. The 13th hole was also sodded with the Latitude. It's doing well in some areas, not so good in others.

Played Red Sky Ranch Norman Course this morning. It was incredible.

Played out there today after a 2-3 month break. Greens and tees are immaculate but man some of the fairways are torched. Hate to see it but this heat is brutal.

I played golf in Dumas today. Makes you appreciate even average conditions a lot more.

I have it on good authority trads has a plan to convert the fairways to paspalum in next 12-24 months. They seeded 19 this summer with paspalum as a trial.

What are the current dues there right now?

ukbb2003 said:

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What are the current initial fees and dues there?

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$25k plus $575/month

Anybody been out there lately? I'm playing Thursday and am just curious about current conditions. Weather looks like it will be crap but I'm still excited to play it for the first time. TIA