It's time for some flower power on the patio

The weather has begun to co-operate with us over the last few weeks, and so we are going to open the Garden a little early this year! Course superintendent Dean Piller and the maintenance crew have begun to work on the flowers on the patio, and it should be looking wonderful in no time.

The maintenance crew has also been hard at work on a new herb garden for chef Walter Gurtner, so all of our herbs will be at their peak when the kitchen puts them to use.

With the great weather also comes our Summer BBQ and Wine Tasting Series. The first of these events will feature the wines of Marley Farms. Come and enjoy a few samples of fantastic local wine along with our BBQ Buffet on Sunday, May 28.

Men’s and Ladies’ Nights are in full swing and Walter has worked hard this year to bring the best foods available for these events. Come and join in the festivities; you will not be disappointed.

We are pleased to welcome back Laura Ralph, one of our top servers from last season.

The Laurie Carroll Cup individual match play competition is conducted during June, July and August. Players compete head to head every seven to 10 days, with the winner moving on to the next round. If you lose your first-round match, you get a second chance to continue on the B side. There is a $20 entry fee and all rounds will be charged at the Men's Club tournament rate of only $45. Entry forms are available in the pro shop, and the.entry deadline is May 31. This one fills quickly so do not delay!

Tournament Schedule

June 17: Summer Swing (four-man team event; net)
June/July/August: Laurie Caroll Cup (match play)
July (TBA): Four-club event (9&Dine)
Aug. 14-15: Seniors Club Championship (flighted medal play, age 55-plus)
Aug. (TBA): Four-club event (9&Dine)
Sept. 16-17: Club Championship (flighted medal play)
Oct. 15: Partners (two-man team event; 6/6/6)
Nov. 12: Autumn Leaves and annual general meeting (Individual Stableford and Hidden Team Stableford)

Middle of May already! Glorious weather -- hope everyone has been out and playing well! Be sure to get your five rounds in to qualify to play in the Club Championship in late August. We are now working hard on our June Social Event. Look for details below and in our locker room and be sure to sign up early!

Numerous Field Days and BCGA events are posted in the locker room. Be sure to stop in, check them out and register early so you don’t miss any of the fun! For more BCGA information, check out links at our new ladies' web page at: www.cordovabaygolf.com.

You can e-mail your executive anytime you have a question or comment at info@cordovabaygolf.com. Or simply leave a note in the ladies' club folder at the pro shop.

See you on the course, of course!

From Cathie Keener, Events Chair ...
The Ladies Club June Social entry forms are now available, in the locker room and online. Be sure to sign up early! This will be a fun afternoon to renew friendships, make new friends …and play a bit of golf! Get that cowgirl outfit ready ... yes ladies, we know you ALL have them! And come prepared to have a good time!

This event is for Ladies' Club members only and does qualify as one of the participations which make you eligible for the Club Championships in August.

Any questions, please contact Cathie Keener cathiek@shaw.ca or any other member of the Ladies' Club Executive.

Interclub Update From Connie Dykstra, Vice-Captain ...
Congratulations go to the interclub team playing against Arbutus Ridge. Not only did our team win 40-32, but two of our members shot personal bests. Kathy Carley shot an 85 and Vivian Hutchinson posted a 93. Well done ladies!

Now for some bad news – the interclub match against Bear Mountain had to be cancelled as Bear Mountain could not field a team. Too bad. Hopefully next year!

Our recent match against Olympic View was this past weekend. I will advise the results next time. In the meantime, good luck ladies and remember, NEVER GIVE UP!

From Annette Hart, Sports Chair ...
From all reports, the new system for ladies' day sig up is working well -- just a reminder to please sign up only once for each day. Have fun out there, and keep it in the short grass.

From Lin Neufeld, Treasurer ...
The Ladies' Club has a web page! We are very excited that we can now post information and news specific to the Ladies' Club. If not already, very shortly club members with e-mail addresses will receive a note with the password that will give you access to the web page. The page has been designed to allow access for Ladies' Club members only.

The web page is accessed by going to the Cordova Bay Golf home page at:
http://www.cordovabaygolf.com/golf-course-victoria.html. Select ‘Clubs’ from the left hand menu. A secondary menu will display ‘Cordova Bay Ladies Club’, select it and you will be presented with a login page in which to enter the password. We hope that you will find the information posted on the site helpful and interesting and we look forward to hearing your comments.

From Sybil Hurwitz, Handicap Chair ...
All new member info is now in the computer. Scores from current games can now be entered. Watch for info on how and when your previous scores can be re-entered. You should soon have info from the pro shop soon regarding this.

(In conjunction with our Audubon Certification, we are pleased to share with you short feature each month on the numerous resident birds you will encounter when golfing here at CBGC. This month, we bring you the House Finch.)

Spring is a very active and exciting time in the birding world.  At my home and also at Cordova Bay Golf Course the bird feeders are busy with many types of birds.  One of the prettiest sounding and looking birds that has been frequenting the feeders is the House Finch. These little birds have such a nice little song and they are out looking for mates and building nests. Some may even have eggs already. As seeds and insects are just emerging and not plentiful yet, it is important to keep your feeders filled as the birds use a lot of energy at this wonderful time of year.

Male House Finches have a dull red to bright red crown, breast and rump. Colour is derived from carotenoid pigments obtained from their diets. It is said that the brightly colored male is more successful at attracting a mate. Females are greyish brown, have a plain, unstriped head with heavy streaking on a lighter underside. The bill is short and thick with a rounded top edge.  House Finches are sparrow sized and sometimes the ladies are mistaken for a sparrow (which can be quite insulting to the finch).

House Finches reside in many areas, including coniferous forests, orchards, golf courses, back yards and farmers fields. These birds do not mind living in close contact with humans. They are omnivorous, gleaning insect pests, grasses, weed seeds, blossoms, buds and fruit of wild and cultivated plants. They love to visit backyard bird feeders and will eat most mixed bird seeds. 

Male House Finches may be seen carrying sticks or twigs around in their bills during mating season, but they do not help build the nest as that is left up to the female. The nest is cup-shaped and made of twigs, grasses and leaves.  These Finches will nest in man-made nesting boxes, old woodpecker holes, trees, hanging plants and on buildings covered with plants. The nest is located five to seven feet above the ground. Instead of defending the nest, the male defends the female.  Two to six blueish, lightly streaked or spotted eggs are laid with each pair breeding two to four times a season. During incubation, the male feeds the female about five times a day. Incubation is about 12 days and the young will leave the nest 11-19 days after hatching. The parents continue to feed the young until they are ready to eat on their own. Sometimes, the female will leave the male to feed the young while she finds another mate to have another brood with.

While wandering around your back yard, look carefully and you might be lucky enough to have these wonderful birds nesting in one of you trees. Try to attract these birds by putting out bird feeders and a source of water. Even if they do not come, you are bound to get some kind of cool birds at your feeders. Also check around the feeders at the course; you may just happen to see the House Finches. A few have been seen at the market every year.  Enjoy the wonders and beauty of spring. 

The 18-hole Bay Course has 61 bunkers, 29 on the front and 32 on the back. The maintenance involved in keeping these bunkers in good condition takes a great deal of time each week, and keeping them consistent is one of our greatest challenges.

When our bunkers were constructed 15 years ago, each bunker was lined with a grey felt geo textile liner that would help keep the expensive silica sand from becoming contaminated with materials in the base of the bunkers. Once this time-consuming process was completed, helicopters were used to transport the silica sand to each bunker, which turned out to be the most cost-effective method of placement. The main reason for this decision originally was to reduce the damage to the bunker edges with the hauling of the sand, and to complete the work in 10 short days ahead of our grand opening on July 6, 1991. The desired depth of sand as specified by the architect that was placed in each bunker was four inches, and back in 1991 the cost of this sand was $80 per tonne.

As we approach the 15th anniversary of the Bay Course, we continue to strive for a depth of four inches in each of the bunkers, and this task takes a fair amount of work to reach the consistency for which we are striving. This depth is optimum for play, as any less can cause the bunker to be too hard and any more can cause the bunker to be too soft. Each year, between 30 and 60 metric tonnes of sand is purchased at a cost of $130 per tonne to replace the sand that is displaced from play or weather conditions. Other regular maintenance items include daily raking with a two-to-four person crew and the trimming of all bunker faces on a bi-weekly basis.

Another interesting statistic is the amount of sand that accumulates outside the bunker faces from sand shots. After 15 years of play, several of the bunker faces that have yet to be renovated have a root zone profile between 12 and 18 inches of bunker sand. Each year, we try to renovate five to10 bunkers to restore them to the original design. During the summer, we will be renovating the pot bunkers on the 11th, 13th and 14th holes, so as you see this work progress look for the positive changes.

(Nellie Harrington is pleased to bring you this month's feature flower/plant/tree that is located here at Cordova Bay with some tips and tricks on how to grow them.)

Latin Name: Paulownia
Common Name: Empress Tree
Zones: 6-9

Paulownia Tormentosa is the grouping of trees by the men's seventh tee box. They grow about 25 feet high and have leaves that grow one foot wide. The spring flowering trees produce mauve flowers that resemble Foxglove-like flowers, which are exotic and beautiful.

Paulownias require full sun and free-draining soil. They like to have average water, and maintenance for these trees vary. You can keep them short and shrub-like, or let them grow and have taller trees. In our case, we picked the latter. The deer quite like the leaves and flowers, even the occasional branch is victim to them. Pruning should be done after they flower. Remove any dead branches.

Paulownias are very fast-growing trees, so any structural pruning must be done at an early age. The branches are brittle, so climbing into them to prune is a bad idea. They are otherwise maintenance-free. I have never seen aphids or other pests bother this tree. The Paulownias are fertilized once a year along with the underplanted shrubs (stay tuned for the new Nandina planting).

By Brian Hann
CPGA Teaching Professional
Henry-Griffitts Master Clubfitter

Every so often, I’ll have a student standing in front of me on the lesson tee who has been conditioned to believe that the length of their golf club should be directly proportionate to their physical stature. Sometimes the person believes there is some relationship between the length of their arms and the ideal club length, or that a measurement taken from the fingertips to the floor while in the standing upright position will reveal the answer to what length of golf club fits best. This is where I need to step in and re-educate. Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.”

Some golf club manufacturers have been kind enough to (over)simplify things for the golf consumers, and this is the usual source for the misinformation that is prevalent. Oh, and there’s always the free advice from a friend with a subscription to the Golf Channel or a major golf publication. I cannot blame people for believing what is funneled to them, but it’s not quite so simple to define the correct length of club for someone. There’s a little investigating to do, and it comes in the form of a session at the driving range with a qualified golf professional. Our professionals are the most qualified that I know.

There are four influences that we consider when working towards a recommendation for club length. All of these are within the context of a fundamentally sound, balanced swing motion. The first is the club length influence on centredness of the strike at impact. We use investigative methods to determine what happens when we change the length of the club. We want a club length that the player can deliver to the ball while achieving a measure of centred impact on the clubface. Second is the influence of the club’s length on the player’s posture. If we see a student standing too upright or too crouched, it can be a sign of mis-fit length, but it can also be due to a belief system that is misinformed. Third is the influence of the club’s length on clubhead speed. In theory, a longer shaft will produce more clubhead speed. In practice, we have found that fully 80 per cent of the time the increase in clubhead speed is negligible. The other 20 per cent of our students will see a measurable increase in their clubhead speed.

The trade-off that we need to appreciate is that the longer club may detract from the player’s ability to repeat centred impact on the clubface. If that’s the case, we need to carefully measure the added value of the clubhead speed against the reduced value in centred contact. Finally, we will acknowledge the physical stature of the player, with particular interest as to how their body type influences their swing motion.

It's a fashion frenzy

So they say it's going to be a long, hot summer ... no complaining here! And as we near the summer solstice of 2006, the pro shop is in full bloom!

Ladies, if you're looking for that special item to splash up your wardrobe this summer, we have it! The Jamie Sadock and Daily collections have arrived in our pro shop and it's amazing! Jamie has continued to incorporate her cutting-edge designs with the most luxurious fabrics available today, yet always adding that bit of signature pizzazz. And this year, we've added Jamie's line of fancy off-course sandals ... but stop by soon as we have a limited supply of sizes available. It's the perfect finale for an elegant golfing outfit.

And Scandanavia has once again proven that it has some of the best golf designers in the world! Our Daily collection for 2006 is indeed in the forefront of golfing fashion! The special attention to detail, such as tee-trimmed bows and logoed ballmarks, keep us coming back for more.

Congratulations to Eileen Tidman, who was the winner of the Mother's Day gift basket! We're sure she'll enjoy the exciting treats inside!

As we look ahead, June 3 is a special day at Cordova Bay. Our Ecco shoe representative, Stuart Lefroy, will be attending at the course all day to preview not only Ecco's fabulous line of golf shoes, but he'll also bring an amazing collection of everyday shoe wear. We'll have all sorts of specials that day to tempt you, so keep that date bookmarked on your calendar to visit us at the pro shop! Check out our events page in the next week for further details of this special offer!

After a fantastically fun adventure to Ixtapa, Mexico, this past winter, Jody Jackson is keen on creating more for the upcoming golf season. The plan is as follows:

AUGUST: KANANASKIS -- A five-day adventure on the doorstep of the Rockies.

SEPTEMBER: WHISTLER -- A weekend away including the new Whistler Mountaineer Railway journey.

JANUARY: THAILAND – 14 Days. An all-inclusive package, including 12 rounds of golf in the majestic South-East Asian paradise.

MARCH: PORTUGAL – 14 Days. Take in the gorgeous Algarve via your golf bag, with a dash of red wine to follow. This European flavour, including a few days in lively Lisbon, is a more cultural affair.

Contact the pro shop at (250) 658-4444 and ask for Jody's voice mail (Ext. 501) for further info. Meanwhile, stay tuned … there are more details to come!