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July 7, 2010
To My Fellow Avid Golfers:
I hope everyone has had an opportunity to enjoy our courses this past spring and early summer. The weather has been quite enjoyable compared to the heat of 2009. The cool, wet conditions we have experienced created several challenges for us here at LaCantera given the golf course is truly a living being that is in a constant cycle of change. We try to enjoy the warm season Bermudagrass from around June until October, and then provide excellent conditions with the cool season overseed from November to May. We are basically growing-in the golf course twice a year. We are constantly trying to make this as smooth a transition as possible for you the guest. One of the first Superintendents I worked with early in my career told me, “A bad overseed equals good transition, and a good overseed equals tough transition.” We were the epitome of this statement the past year. Due to the water restrictions of last year’s drought we only overseeded greens and tees. For those of you who played in March thru May you saw the effects of a great overseed on the greens, tees, and the fairways were as good as any one on property could remember. Then the transition began and our non-overseeded areas have been exceptional. However, we saw a tremendous lack of turf on the greens due to the cool season competition with the Bermudagrass. I am pleased to say that the overall playability of the greens was good, but the aesthetics were less than desired. We are fully into the recovery stage and currently enjoying excellent conditions on The Palmer Course, and seeing major improvement to the greens on The Resort Course. Just like you and me, we are not 100% everyday, as goes the golf course. Mother Nature throws us some curves and we react in as quick a fashion as possible to limit your exposure to the issues. Although we are working hard to make sure you can enjoy the summer months on the course the cycle will begin again in the fall and we will do our best to limit the disruption of your enjoyment on the course. Hopefully Mother Nature won’t disagree with us.
If you watched the US Open at Pebble Beach this year, you probably heard the phrase “Brown is the new green.” Golf courses like ours that are committed to the environment and natural resources are trying to do more with less. This will result in some less than desired areas that you have not been accustomed to seeing in the past at La Cantera. This is good for the game of golf. It helps us keep costs down and can create excellent playing surfaces. Firm and fast is a great way to play golf, but lush green is neither firm nor fast. All of us here in the maintenance department are constantly trying to give you the best of both worlds. Like you, green is still my favorite color.
Enjoy the Nature of the Game,
Jeff Kadlec
Director of Agronomy, La Cantera Golf Club
(210) 558-3091
April 4, 2010
To my fellow avid golfers:
It is with great pleasure that LaCantera Golf Club has become a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Below you will find the press release sent out by Audubon International, and I must say that this has been both an educational and enjoyable experience for everyone involved. I believe that this recognition is a testament to the facilities dedication to the environment and the high-class standards put in place by Troon Golf Management. It should be noted that everyone in the maintenance department has played a role in obtaining this achievement. However, this is only the beginning to a process that will continue us on a path of environmental excellence.
Westin La Cantera Golf Club Recognized for Environmental Excellence
SAN ANTONIO, TX – The Westin La Cantera Golf Club golf course has achieved designation as a "Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary" through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, an Audubon International program. Jeff Kadlec, Director of Agronomy, has led the effort to obtain sanctuary status on this course and is being recognized for Environmental Stewardship by Audubon International. Westin La Cantera Golf Club is the 17th course in Texas and the 752nd in the world to receive the honor.
"Westin La Cantera Golf Club has shown a strong commitment to its environmental program. They are to be commended for their efforts to provide a sanctuary for wildlife on the golf course property," said Jim Sluiter, Staff Ecologist for the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Programs.
"To reach certification, a course must demonstrate that they are maintaining a high degree of environmental quality in a number of areas," explained Sluiter. These categories include: Environmental Planning, Wildlife & Habitat Management, Outreach and Education, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, Water Conservation, and Water Quality Management.
The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, endorsed by the United States Golf Association, provides information and guidance to help golf courses preserve and enhance wildlife habitat, and protect natural resources. Golf courses from the United States, Africa, Australia, Canada, Central America, Europe, and Southeast Asia have also achieved certification in the program.
For more information on golf and the environment, visit www.golfandenvironment.org. In addition to golf courses, Audubon International also provides programs for businesses, schools, communities, and new developments. For more information, contact Audubon International, 46 Rarick Rd., Selkirk, NY 12158, USA, (518) 767-9051, e-mail them via the Internet at acsp@auduboninternational.org, or visit their website at www.auduboninternational.org
March 2, 2010
To my fellow avid golfers:
I think it is safe to say we at LaCantera are all ready for winter to be behind us. With the coming of spring it is time to start thinking about our Bermudagrass coming out of dormancy as we have begun our pre-emergent weed applications on both golf courses with a follow up application to be made around the 1st week of April as pre-emergent weed control is our best defense against weeds. It proves to be cost effective, we use fewer chemicals on the course, and the overall aesthetics of the course improve. As a note for the homeowners in South Texas, a good rule of thumb for your lawns is to make an application around Valentine’s Day and again around April 1st. We have seen this program help us reduce the weed pressure on the golf course. We’re seeing the Bermudagrass on the fairways show signs of green-up with some of the warmer days the last few weeks, but unfortunately the temperatures continued to fall into the low 30’s putting the plant back into dormancy. However, I believe with a little help from Mother Nature we should begin to see dramatic changes in our dormant fairways in the upcoming weeks. We have begun a process of light vertical cutting on the fairways which removes excess clippings and organic buildup in the top canopy layer left behind from the mowing we did this winter. We feel these preparation techniques will enable the new plants to have the best conditions possible to come out of dormancy. Fear not fellow golfers, we also know that this will create an even better playing surface in the fairways come spring. It will even out and improve the lie for your golf ball, making birdies and pars easier to achieve.
In short we are excited to see the course come back to life. The water restrictions last fall made it unreasonable to overseed the fairways, and we are all excited to see plush, green fairways again.
I would also like to give you a quick update on our Audubon Certification. We are pleased to announce our certification completion in Wildlife Habitat and Water Conservation. We will be working with the First Tee of San Antonio on March 6 as we have scheduled a program that will assist kids in building birdhouses and learn how golf course can improve the environment and community. I am pleased to say that we will be donating the houses to the First Tee facility. We hope the kids will enjoy watching their efforts improve the bird habitat in an already beautiful setting. With the completion of working with the kids we will be able to submit our final category, Education and Outreach. We plan to be fully Certified by May of this year.
January 29, 2010
It is with great pleasure I am writing this article for La Cantera Golf Club and its website. The goal of Agronomy Corner is to provide you with information about the golf course and projects we are working on. I hope you find this both enjoyable and educational as you’ll gain a true perspective from an agronomist’s point-of-view.
I am proud to say that La Cantera Golf Club is currently pursuing certification with the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program (ACSP) which is an education certification program that helps organizations and businesses protect our environment. To complete certification, we must develop and implement an environmental plan and document its results. This process focuses on five key areas:
La Cantera has obtained certification in Environmental Planning and have submitted our efforts in Wildlife and Habitat Mgmt and Water Conservation for review. We currently are in the middle of completing the final two categories. The process of completing our ACSP certification was easier thanks to the daily practices La Cantera has followed in the past. The team has truly done a wonderful job, however, there is always room to grow and improve.
I would encourage you to visit their website at http://www.auduboninternational.org/. This is a great organization that you can use to implement positive environmental practices at your home through a program called the Audubon International’s Treasuring Home Initiative. This is a pledge you can make to the environment and the community at home and I will be more than happy to assist anyone with an interest in pursuing this further.
I look forward to sharing information with you regarding the conditions and projects of both The Palmer Course and Resort Course at La Cantera. | 
